DOWN TO BUSINESS – I’ll admit to doing a contented dance upon seeing headlines mid-month that New York would possibly as soon as once more ponder wine gross sales in supermarkets.
I acquired a style of that comfort a number of years again job-searching within the Washington, D.C., space, and appreciated it. The stock won’t have been deep, however there normally was a well-known label to pair with my microwavable dinner.
New York stays within the minority of states that don’t let supermarkets promote wine (40 do), so woe is us.
However two legislators launched companion payments within the Meeting and Senate to vary that, proposing that supermarkets of no less than 5,000 sq. toes, deriving no less than 65% of gross sales from food-related merchandise, and that have already got beer-retailing licenses, be permitted to promote wine.
Comfort shops, drugstores, big-box retailers and supercenters could be particularly excluded as sellers below the laws.
Supermarkets would pay a $10,000 licensing payment per location, however might get a break on the price of annual renewal primarily based on the amount of New York-made wines offered.
Limiting wine gross sales to liquor/wine shops traces to Prohibition, in accordance with a invoice memo accompanying the laws. However occasions have modified, it says, and “If shoppers may be trusted to purchase beer in supermarkets, they need to be given the choice to buy wine with their groceries as nicely.”
Behind the proposal are Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter, D-Syracuse, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who tout the comfort to shoppers and advantages to state wine producers.
However let’s be real looking for a second.
The timing of the Hunter/Krueger payments isn’t superb, coming a month earlier than the tip of a legislative session that already was upended by drawn-out funds deliberations that left some large points hanging, together with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s grand scheme so as to add 800,000 housing items throughout the state over the subsequent decade.
Then there was the report from a particular fee tasked to review New York’s liquor legal guidelines and make suggestions on modernizing them, launched simply earlier than the Hunter/Krueger proposal. Established final 12 months, the panel contemplated 28 reforms and advisable 18 to be thought of for enactment — however promoting wine in supermarkets was not amongst them.
That suggestion failed to achieve the nine-vote threshold wanted to maneuver ahead. Opponents echoed the widespread chorus that permitting grocery store gross sales would kill wine and liquor shops.
However a late-2022 examine from researchers on the College of Connecticut, which gauged client sentiment in addition to the financial affect of letting supermarkets promote wine in that state, confirmed that growing comfort wouldn’t hurt incumbent sellers. Shoppers backed the thought by 80%, in accordance with the examine, which signaled “a market massive sufficient to accommodate extra shops with out hurting current distributors.”
The examine was performed for the Connecticut Meals Affiliation, which supported grocery store gross sales. The measure didn’t make it out of legislative committee in March, although, in accordance with media reviews.
A lot for my comfortable dance.
Marlene Kennedy is a contract columnist. Opinions expressed in her column are her personal and never essentially the newspaper’s. Attain her at marlenejkennedy@gmail.com.
