Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services’ Goshen Crossing Liquor and Wine Store Temporarily Closed Awaiting COVID-19 Employee Testing

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 20, 2021

The Goshen Crossing Liquor and Wine store in Gaithersburg, operated by Montgomery County’s Department of Alcohol Beverage Services (ABS), has temporarily closed. One employee stayed home with a fever yesterday and has tested negative for COVID-19. The employee last worked at the Goshen Liquor and Wine store, located at 20004-2008 Goshen Road, on Saturday and had no symptoms at the time.

Out of an abundance of caution, local health officials conducted a contact tracing effort and determined additional store employees are to quarantine until their COVID-19 test results return. The resulting staff shortage has caused the store to close today. 

If any of the COVID-19 tests are positive, employees will quarantine for 10 days and a specialized team will be brought in to disinfect the store before reopening. This deep cleaning involves chemical fogging and manual wiping down of all products and high contact surfaces in the store.

In addition to deep cleaning, all ABS stores have installed plexiglass at each register to create a barrier between consumers and staff and have erected hand sanitizer stations by the front doors. Staff is frequently disinfecting surfaces and is encouraging social distancing of at least six feet. Signage reminding customers to engage in social distancing and of the County health order requiring residents to wear facemasks while shopping, have been posted in each store as well. Staff are also limiting the number of people who can shop at one time to ensure distancing can be maintained.

ABS is the alcohol wholesaler of beer, wine and spirits for Montgomery County. ABS operates 25 beer, wine, and spirits stores and one spirits-only store in Poolesville. It manages alcohol licensing, enforcement, and education for more than 1,000 businesses. Generating more than $35 million in net income annually, ABS profits are used to pay down County debt with a large portion deposited in the County general fund to pay for resident services that would otherwise be funded by County tax dollars.

Learn more about ABS by visiting the website and by following ABS on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Release ID: 21-252
Media Contact: Melissa Davis 240-660-1224