Written by Heather Briccetti on March 8, 2010 – 7:27 am
The state is considering allowing grocery stores to sell wine - the money from new liquor licenses would help ease a budget crunch. But the powerful liquor store lobby has other ideas.
Tina Susman of the Los Angeles Times writes - “Reporting from New York - Quick, which of the following is not allowed in New York: riding the subway without pants, performing a play in public while naked, or buying wine at the grocery store?
If you chose the last option, perhaps you’ve been following one of the liveliest debates to emerge from otherwise dry budget talks in the state capital, Albany, where politicians struggling with a dire fiscal crisis see wine as an antidote.
New York remains one of 15 states that limit wine sales to liquor stores. But the proposed 2010-11 budget would open sales to grocery stores to generate an estimated $250 million in revenue from new liquor licenses.
In this bastion of liberalism — home to the city that never sleeps, a burgeoning local wine industry, and a mainly urban populace that prides itself on sophistication — it might seem like broadening wine sales would be as welcome as a full-bodied red on a cold winter’s night.
But the state’s powerful liquor store lobby has successfully fended off similar attempts in the past — most recently during last year’s budget debate — arguing that the change would drive small liquor stores out of business by making it convenient for shoppers to buy wine at grocery stores…
Those who support grocery store wine sales point out that not everyone in the state lives in New York City, where it’s common to be just a few minutes’ walk from a liquor store. In fact, 570 towns, with names like Swan Lake and Owls Head, speaking for their rural characters, have no liquor stores, according to the Department of Agriculture and Markets.
“Nobody realizes that there is more to the state of New York than the five boroughs,” said an exasperated Kim Pavnick, the owner of Grandpa’s Grocery in the snowbound hamlet of Bliss, more than 300 miles northwest of New York City. “We’re in the boonies here. If more than three cars a day pass my house, it’s because someone is having a bake sale.”
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