Kentucky has a tightly controlled system for the sale of alcohol that has worked well for 75 years. Why change it now?
Grocery stores can, and do sell wine now through their own package stores. All they have to do is follow the same rules as other package stores.
There are currently more than 40 grocery-owned package stores.
Despite the grocers’ theme “this is simple” alcohol is not, and should not be, simple.
They claim that in states where they are allowed to sell wine, it is second only to the sale of bottled water.
Alcohol is not bottled water nor a can of green beans. It should not be thought of or handled casually.
Wine is NOT beer.
Wine has more than double the alcohol content of Beer, which means a person can get drunk twice as fast.
Wine has a high alcohol content. This is why our state, and many other state legislatures wisely (and correctly) group wine with vodka, bourbon, tequila, scotch and gin when it comes to licensing and sales.
Their revenue projections are completely unrealistic. They do not take into consideration the lost jobs and taxes currently paid by small package stores that will be forced out of business. This will certainly have a negative effect on the Kentucky bourbon industry. (Distilleries are also opposed to this legislation).
There will be a shift in business away from small local businesses to large out-of-state corporations, not a doubling of wine sales, as they claim. Profits will go out of state instead of being kept in our community.
Kentucky families have invested their life savings in a business where the rules have been set for 75 years. Is it fair to our small businesses to change the rules so dramatically after that investment has been made?
Most states that allow grocery stores to sell wine did so at the end of prohibition when their rules were initially set.
More than half of the states that do allow wine in grocery stores are “control states”. This means there isn’t head-to-head competition between independent businesses and grocery stores for those sales dollars.
Although the grocers have attempted this change year after year in numerous states, they have been unsuccessful for 23 years.
Package stores are not allowed to sell gasoline or more than 10% in staple groceries, so why should grocery stores be allowed to sell more types of alcohol?
Current laws are in place to protect the public, especially minors.
Here are a few that would change under their plan:
Currently: Employees must be 20+ to be employed by a package liquor and wine store.
Under Their Plan: Grocers can allow their 16 year old employees to handle adult beverages.
Currently: Minors are not allowed in a package store without an adult.
Under Their Plan: Grocers can allow minors to roam their alcohol aisles unsupervised.
Currently: Package stores must be closed during times when alcohol is not allowed to be sold.
Under Their Plan: Grocers can continue to be open 24/7.
Currently: Package licenses are only awarded if the local quota has not been met.
Under Their Plan: Grocers can have unlimited wine licenses. According to the Food with Wine Coalition packets own estimates, this could be up to 1,100 wine licenses!
This would be largest increase in alcohol outlets since Prohibition!
The grocers claim that more employees will need to be hired to deliver the wine and stock it. Kentucky law requires that the wholesaler deliver the product to the retail site. The grocers may hire an extra teenager to stock, but it is more likely that they will use existing teenage stockers. What happens to those adult employees in the current grocery-owned package stores when they close those doors because they’ve moved the wine inside? The reality is that you will see a net loss in jobs, especially when you factor in the small independent package stores that will be run out of business by these big out-of-state corporations.
The United Kingdom and Ireland are considering the ban of alcohol from grocery stores due to the increase in alcohol-related problems. Here is what was written in the United Kingdom’s Daily Telegraph on February 20, 2008:
‘Professor Julian le Grand, the chairman of Health England said:
- customers should be made to make a conscious decision to buy drink by going into a different shop instead of being “lured” into buying alcohol during their weekly grocery shop.
- alcohol had become “like adult candy”, with customers seduced into buying cut-price drink on their way around the supermarket in the same way that sweets used to be placed near tills.
In conclusion, Prof le Grand said: “I am in favour of separate alcohol outlets. Certain states in the United States and certain provinces in Canada have separate stores. I would probably ban supermarkets from selling alcohol altogether.”
Keeping wine from expanding into groceries can:
- Protect small local Kentucky businesses and their employees
- Protect minors from easy access to high alcohol content products
- Protect Kentuckians by limiting the responsibility of selling alcohol to people who understand alcohol is anything but “simple.”
A package store lives or dies by the appropriate handling and selling of alcohol.
Yet to a grocer, it is just another product to make a profit. If the grocers’ lose their alcohol license, they can just replace that product space with one of their thousands of other products. If a package store loses its license, it closes its doors.
Stand up for small businesses and say “No” to the expansion of wine inside grocery stores. Tell them to keep it safe! If they really want to be in the wine business, open an outside package store and abide by these laws, like they currently can.
