Crain's New York is reporting that liquor stores are up in arms over the proposal by Governor Paterson to expand sales of wine to grocery stores in an attempt to raise money for the state budget. 2,700 of them have banded together to form a coalition called "The Last Store on Main Street" to fight the proposal, which could lead to an additional 19,000+ licenses to sell wine.
New York State has long been backwards in laws related to selling wine. Recall that only a few years ago, all liquor stores were closed on Sundays as if this were the deep South. Some of these same stores fought the change because they argued Sunday hours favored big liquor stores over mom & pop shops. They were wrong about that and they are wrong about this.
Fewer than ten states limit wine sales to liquor stores. New Jersey has tons of liquor stores and you can buy wine in supermarkets. If you peruse the aisle of a Jersey supermarket, you'll find a good deal of plonck among the mostly pedestrian choices. If you want interesting or hard to find wine, you go to a liquor store. The same would happen in New York - not to mention that you would still have to buy liquor at a liquor store. Also, let's not forget that stores in New York City don't even have all that much room for wine due to high real estate costs - stuff is already stacked to the ceiling. Where are they going to put so much wine that it puts shops out of business?
However, we do think wine shops should be able to sell more than alcohol - cheese, mixers and beer come to mind. We also support the proposal to allow shops to have multiple licenses - creating mini-chains that can then leverage distributors for better deals. Let's level the playing field and let capitalism take over, shall we?
New York State has long been backwards in laws related to selling wine. Recall that only a few years ago, all liquor stores were closed on Sundays as if this were the deep South. Some of these same stores fought the change because they argued Sunday hours favored big liquor stores over mom & pop shops. They were wrong about that and they are wrong about this.
Fewer than ten states limit wine sales to liquor stores. New Jersey has tons of liquor stores and you can buy wine in supermarkets. If you peruse the aisle of a Jersey supermarket, you'll find a good deal of plonck among the mostly pedestrian choices. If you want interesting or hard to find wine, you go to a liquor store. The same would happen in New York - not to mention that you would still have to buy liquor at a liquor store. Also, let's not forget that stores in New York City don't even have all that much room for wine due to high real estate costs - stuff is already stacked to the ceiling. Where are they going to put so much wine that it puts shops out of business?
However, we do think wine shops should be able to sell more than alcohol - cheese, mixers and beer come to mind. We also support the proposal to allow shops to have multiple licenses - creating mini-chains that can then leverage distributors for better deals. Let's level the playing field and let capitalism take over, shall we?
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