District of Columbia law prevents gasoline stations from also selling alcoholic beverages. But when Costco decided it was interested in setting up an operation in D.C. earlier this year, city officials were eager to have them, writes Matthew Yglesias of Slate. So officials agreed to a loophole: Costco could get a license to sell liquor and beer and wine, and rather than operating a gas station on the property Costco would divide the lot, with a small portion of it owned by a separate firm that happens to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Coscto. Thus, writes Yglesias, both the gasoline and the booze can flow.
And so can the ire. D.C.’s other gasoline retailers are upset, and a furious lobbying battle is under way largely between Coscto and a Virginia businessman named Eyob Mamo who’s the biggest player in the local industry.
