Darwin’s: The evolution of a college liquor store

Walking down Benefit Street, Darwin’s is not a place one can miss. A small corner shop on the block, the store sports a sign that depicts human evolution from primate to modern day human beings. The evolution of Darwin’s expands from far more than just the evolution of a college student’s drink of choice. In just the past four years, student life on campus has drastically changed, causing Darwin’s to change with it.

The Tab sat down with the mysterious and erratic liquor store owner, George Darwin, to learn more about the infamous shop, and to get his perspective on underage drinking and the rocky relationship with law enforcement and administration.

What was your initial reason for opening up a liquor store here on Benefit?

Before this stint, I was laid off from my job at AT&T. I knew that I had a lot of money from my 401k, and with that, I decided to open up a liquor store. I have been doing this for nine years … nine years is a long time. Enough time to learn about Brown and the changes that have been happening to my business and the area in general.

Because you are so close to college students and campuses, you must have an idea of what people like to drink. What are the drinks of choice?

Big guys, I’m assuming football players, come in buying a lot of light beers. Girls on the other hand, tend to go with vodka, Svedka to be more specific. I get a lot of RISD kids in here who will buy Goose. There was actually this one RISD girl that I remember in particular who ran in from a parked limo outside and bought two handles of Goose.

You seem pretty sure that you can distinguish students from different campuses. How can you tell?

A lot of the Brown kids come in dressed ready for a business meeting and a lot of them have less of a disdain for labels. The RISD kids come in wearing their art as a badge of honor with paint on their hands and clothes as well as a greater disdain for labels. I also have to admit, some of these kids come in smelling as if they have not showered in days.

Any memorable moments of Brown students coming in for a purchase?

One time, I dropped off 100 30-packs of Keystone for a frat party. That’s like 3000 beers.

Before the current changes that have been implicated concerning parties, what do you remember the better times of the night life being like?

Back in the day, there wasn’t a lot of hassle or worries about people getting into trouble. Let’s call that time normal. The party scene definitely played a big role for entertainment and overall campus happiness. I went to a couple of parties then. Do you remember Castlevania? That was a fucking good time. I also went to a couple of Meat Mansion parties. Also fun. I don’t do that anymore, though. It’s a little strange for an old guy to party with a bunch of college kids.

So parties now – what do you see that has changed?

It seems as if parties at Brown have gone into the closet. I hear that the parties are very exclusive now. It sounds somewhat like Metropolitan the movie. Over the years, college parties have definitely gotten worse. Kids get shitfaced before they go out downtown, which is dangerous because of the replacement of hard liquor over beer. Now that there is a sales tax that separates beer from wine and booze, there is no tax for hard liquor. Beer sales are definitely down, and hard liquor is up.

School-sponsored parties have taken a turn for the worse, too. Brown has no more sponsored drinking events on campus, and they require three weeks’ notice in advance for any planned event.

At RISD, there are school-sponsored events that will serve beer and bartend for you. But the problem is that these events are basically robbing students of their money. They charge three dollars for a Red Bull that they paid a dollar for, or they charge fifteen for a bottle of wine that cost them three dollars.

The tailgates at Brown are the last spaces on campus for students to drink in the open. The cops encircle us and allow alcohol in that space, but they hold their ability to shut the event down whenever they choose to. Even on 4/20, students are protected on campus.   

You see, persecuting the liquor stores will not change anything. It will simply force students to go farther and farther away to buy alcohol. Towns and areas further away from Brown’s campus are not going to be the safest places to go. What problem are they fixing? It’s not an alcohol problem. Rather, it’s a problem of kids being irresponsible. This is what I have been saying for as long as I can remember: keep the kids on campus and work with me, not against me.

You have had your share of law enforcement coming your way. What have your experiences been like with the police?

There was this time when I saw a cop parked about 75 feet away outside of the store. Let me be clear that the sun set hours ago, and that this was in the middle of the night. The cop watched as customers left my store and just waited. After a while, the cop walked over to the store to stop someone who “looked under 21.” First of all, how could the cop tell? The only light on the street was the dim light from the store. From then, the cops would stake out of the store over a period of two weeks and found eleven people with fakes. That definitely began to ruin my business. The police then turned the blame onto me, as if I was the one who paid hundreds for a fake. They hit me with a $7,500 fine.

How do you deal with a situation where someone comes into the store with a fake?

I don’t support underage drinking. I have been drinking since I was seven. Look what it has done to me. I have a scanner that functions well. (He bangs a fat stack of fakes on the table). I’m not going to be childishly upset when people come in with a fake. I don’t want to yell at them, but I calmly turn them away and tell the potential customer to come back when he or she is 21, and I will buy them a drink. You see? I’m trying to work with Brown and encourage responsible drinking. But, Brown is not like that and refuses to work with me. I will participate in whatever proposal Brown has, but in the meantime, the best that I can do is check ID.

You keep talking about wanting to work with Brown. What exactly do you mean by that?

The logo on Brown’s police car is, “Partnering with the community.” In the nine years that I have been in this business, not once have they worked with me. What they see as their options are to buy me out, squash me, or bargain with me. If it’s my license that they want, it is going to end up to be about the money. I don’t need to be in the booze business. Nine years is a long time, but they have shown no effort in trying to do anything other than prosecute me. Brown isn’t fighting me corrupting their young. Instead, the administration has lost control over the kids who want to party. How is Brown going to regain control? They can’t cuff the kids. Instead, the school needs to start doing right by them. Doing right, yes, but safety? That’s most important.