Dixie Liquors on M Street, a popular supplier of alcohol among Georgetown students, will close its doors later this week after more than 50 years in business.

The store’s location near Georgetown’s campus and many off-campus student residences has made Dixie a decades-old hotspot for students seeking alcoholic beverages.

Employees declined to comment on the reasons for Dixie’s closure.

Dave Del Bene (COL ’93), general manager of Clyde’s Restaurant on M Street, said he remembers Dixie as the lifeline of the university’s social scene during his years at Georgetown.

“That was the place to buy kegs if you were having a party,” Del Bene said.

Several students said that they see the store’s closure as an inconvenience, given its proximity to the university.

“It’s a close place to get alcohol,” Meg Benner (COL ’07) said. “I’ll probably just have to plan ahead and go to Towne [Liquors],” which is located on Wisconsin Ave. between N and O Streets.

The closing comes less than a year after another well-established Georgetown business, Sugar’s Campus Store on 35th and O Streets, closed its doors, which engendered a brief student campaign to keep the store open.

Some said that they think Dixie’s closing will have less of a sentimental impact on the Georgetown community than Sugar’s closing did because Dixie is less visible to Georgetown students on a daily basis than Sugar’s was.

“I don’t think Georgetown students get emotional attachments to liquor stores,” Ben Ryan (COL ’08) said.

Clay Keir (SFS ’07) said that although he regrets the loss of a convenient place to purchase kegs, the discounted prices that Dixie is offering in its final days of operations are a benefit of the store’s closure. He said that he saved nearly 50 percent on his most recent purchase.

“I actually bought a ton of stuff today,” Keir said. “It’s really just a great benefit to us all now that we can buy cheap alcohol.”

Chris Lee, manager of Wagner’s Liquor Shop on Wisconsin Avenue, said that he expects business to increase as a result of Dixie’s closure, particularly with regard to keg sales.

Dixie is “probably the number one keg seller in D.C.,” he said.

Dixie, which is licensed under the applicant name M R S Enterprises, has encountered trouble with city alcohol regulations at least once in the past. According to a September 2005 report in The Washington Post, the city suspended the store’s liquor license for 30 days and fined the store $7,000 for selling kegs without proper registration as required by D.C. law.

Jeff Coudriet, director of operations for the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, could not be reached for comment yesterday.