The Elmore City Council has decided to close the Elmore Municipal Liquor Store, pictured above, after the operation showed two consecutive years of net losses. The council will hold a public hearing regarding the liquor store’s closure on Jan. 8, 2024, at 6 p.m.

Faribault County was down to having just one of its four municipal liquor stores show a loss for the 2022 year. Now that liquor store is scheduled to close in 2024.

The information came from the Minnesota State Auditor’s Office and is their annual Municipal Liquor Store Report, released last week.

That store was in Elmore, which showed a net loss of $8,384 for 2022. The Elmore Municipal Liquor Store showed a loss of $4,924, the previous year, in 2021.

Minnesota law requires cities to hold public hearings on the future of their liquor stores if the liquor operation shows a loss in at least two of the last three years.

Elmore is one of 14 cities in the state that is being required to hold a public hearing because of their 2022 net loss.

The City Council in Elmore has decided to close the Elmore Liquor Store, and is holding a public hearing on Jan. 8, 2024, at 6 p.m., for a second reading of an ordinance that is for closing the store.

After the reading of the ordinance and any public input, the council is expected to vote on, and pass, the ordinance, effectively closing the store.

The hearing will be followed with the Elmore City Council organizational meeting and their first meeting of the new year.

The city-owned liquor store in Kiester had also shown a loss in 2021, in an amount of $1,609. For 2022, however, Kiester had shown improvement and had a positive income of $3,026.

Kiester had gross sales of $217,273 in 2022, while Elmore was at sales of $100,245.

As far as the other two municipal liquor stores in Faribault County, the numbers looked pretty good.

Blue Earth Wine and Spirits had gross sales of $1,834,369, with a net profit of $57,624. Blue Earth also had a transfer out of their liquor fund of $100,000.

Wells Liquor Store had gross sales of $1,145,758, with a net income of $54,407.

All of the 176 municipal liquor stores in the state were ranked by gross sales.

Blue Earth was in 68th place, Wells was at 89th place, Kiester at 171 and Elmore was second from the bottom of the list at 174.

All four county liquor stores had remarkably similar gross sales in 2022 as they had in 2021.

Blue Earth had gross sales of $1,864,553 in 2021, nearly identical to 2022’s figure. Wells was similar, with $1,168,568 in 2021 compared to 2022’s $1,145,758.

Kiester and Elmore were also similar, and had a slight increase from 2021 to 2022 in both cities. In 2021 Kiester was at $216,217 and in 2022 it had sales of $217,273. Elmore was at $98,832 in 2021, and at $100,245 in 2022.