Question, if anyone has the answer. Out west in Wegman's Grocery Stores, you can purchase beer and wine right in the grocery store. You check-out in the normal lines. So I guess I'm confused...?
There's an exemption in place for some areas of NY because of the vineyards out there - they can only sell locally produced products, and it must be below a certain alcohol level. That's what I was told.
You know the state will let this go through, whether it's good for the small business or not. They don't really care about the small business person, they only care about the additional taxes that they can bring in.
I may be missing something here, but this stuff has been going on for the last couple of decades. How many markets are in the florist business now? How many markets are in the pharmacy business now? How many markets are in the video rental business now? How many Walmarts are in the 'everything' business now? They 'all' want a piece of the action. They have beenkilling small businesses for quite a while now. Now it is just the 'wine industry's' turn.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Is it the government's role to prevent viable stores (be they large) from carrying wine?
Wine is just another commodity. A product to produce revenues. And if the government is in need of revenues, wine WILL be on the shelves at every supermarket.
BJ's already sells wine. Not real good ones. In fact they taste more like grape juice, but they do sell wine. I would have to guess that the government will allow markets to sell only 'certain wines'. That is how they will appease the wine/liquor stores. The wine/liquor store will carry ALL brands, but the markets will have some restrictions on what brands they can sell. IMHO
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Kill bill to allow sale of alcohol in grocery stores
Our legislators must stop Gov. Paterson’s proposal to legalize the sale of wine in grocery stores. If this becomes law, many small businesses will be forced to close their doors, costing the state thousands of valuable jobs. New York already leads the nation in job losses, and I can’t imagine why the state would sanction a proposal that makes things worse. Plus, this proposal would make it much easier for teenagers to get access to alcohol. New York wine sellers are small businesses whose licenses are revoked if they fail to prevent youth from purchasing alcohol. Grocery stores cannot manage this risk as effectively. New York would become like Florida, California and Texas, where wine is sold everywhere and where three times as many kids under 21 die each year from alcohol-related incidents. Our state has felt enough pain. We must demand that the governor and Legislature kill this proposal before April 1.
This was a topic that was brought up on WROW this afternoon on the Drive Home with Sherman Baldwin. Personally, I hadn't given it much thought before I heard some of the comments. These weren't my thoughts originally, but I now ask myself the following questions and look at the facts. They prove the point themselves.
Just think. Where are the wine / liquor stores located? Just outside the big grocery stores. One by Price Chopper, one by Hannaford (I think), and there's one in the Crosstown Plaza, right near Price Rite. Any / all of these could be put right out of business if the store they're located next to is allowed to start carrying wine. So, all this would bring is the possibility of closed storefronts. The ONLY liquor store around that I can think of that is officially in Rotterdam and isn't next to a grocery store is the one at the corner of Broadway and Draper Ave...and I would think that most people would actually consider this in Schenectady.
Plus...if you want a bottle of wine, but you don't know exactly what you want, would you feel comfortable asking a grocery store clerk for suggestions? That's WHY there's specialty stores for these things and others. Also, many wine and liquor stores have a special setup with local wineries (or, at least out of NY state somewhere). Where will these agreements go to when the stores dry up?
Maybe our (to be former) County Legislator / current chocolatier will start to have a wine section in his store in the near future...if only he could get Metroplex money to build on.
The lobbyists have been descending on Albany in recent weeks to push for, or against, a couple of bills that have been kicking around the Legislature for years, but have never passed. Both would impact the way consumers buy drinks — alcoholic as well as soft — and are controversial, but the arguments that favor them have never been more compelling. It’s time both were passed. We’re talking about the so-called bigger, better bottle bill — an expansion of the returnable bottle law to include noncarbonated beverages such as bottled water and sports drinks — and a bill that would allow groceries and supermarkets to start selling wine. Currently, such stores may only sell beer. The returnable bottle law, originally passed in 1982, is badly outdated. Bottled water was but a gleam in some marketing genius’ eye back then, and pretty much the only sports drink available was Gatorade — and it didn’t come in a multitude of sizes, the way it and its legions of copycats do today. Noncarbonated drinks (not including wine or liquor) now account for roughly one-third of the state’s beverage market — roughly 5 billion out of a total of 14 billion sold annually. Expanding the law to require nickel deposits on their containers would help reduce litter, take pressure off landfills that are bursting at the seams, and generate as much as $218 million in unclaimed deposits for the state. That’s because Gov. Paterson has proposed diverting the unclaimed deposits to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund. Understandably, the distributors who now get those nickels aren’t happy about the plan, but they might be convinced to drop their opposition if the deposit were raised to a dime and they were allowed to keep half. After all, the nickel of today is worth about the same as the penny of 1982, so it’s unlikely that having to (temporarily) pony up an extra nickel would break anybody’s bank. And it would not only raise more money, but increase compliance. As for expanding wine sales beyond liquor stores, it would raise more badly needed money for the state by increasing sales of all wines, including those produced in New York, and license fees. The increased competition would probably result in lower consumer prices, to the detriment of some liquor stores. But the state gave them a break several years ago when it allowed them to open seven days a week. The state isn’t supposed to favor one type of business over another, especially when doing so hurts consumers; thus it shouldn’t cave to the....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00901
As for expanding wine sales beyond liquor stores, it would raise more badly needed money for the state by increasing sales of all wines, including those produced in New York, and license fees.
which means we will have to increase the dept that oversees sales to minors and the "do you have an alcohol problem? Call NYS blah blah..." there goes the fee$$
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
First published in print: Sunday, February 15, 2009
In the upside down world of Albany politics, it figures that Gov. Paterson's proposal to finally allow the sale of wine in grocery stores would be in trouble.
The advantages of New York selling wine in grocery stores, particularly in these economically off-the-cliff times, are so obvious and overwhelming as to be self-evident. New York consumers would instantly encounter vastly more choice and convenience in terms of availability, which in turn translates into more wine sales, happier drinkers, more state sales tax and far more outlets for the state wine industry. Who could argue?
Well, as expected that would be the state's existing wine and liquor stores, which see their state-sponsored monopolies at risk. If fact, they are fighting the governor's proposal tooth and nail, with an intensive lobbying effort aimed at the Legislature and the state's wine industry. Winery owners are getting an angry and seemingly organized earful from liquor store owners who are telling them they better not support this, or they will risk losing shelf space for their wines. It's gotten very nasty across the state. Most operators of wineries I've spoken to are officially neutral on the proposal, and mostly don't want to be drawn into it. Because at the moment, those wineries rely on the existing system to distribute their wines to the public and this puts them in economic jeopardy. Personally, many of them look forward to the day New York joins 35 other states in opening wine sales to food outlets, where wines belong. I say all this as a reviewer of wines for this paper and having occasionally judged wines for the New York Wine and Grape Foundation.
There are plenty of examples from California, Washington, Florida and elsewhere on how wine in grocery stores has increased consumption, benefited the home state's wineries and enhanced state revenues, while not increasing illegal consumption by minors.
Paterson proposal will ruin New York state wine industry
As a concerned taxpayer and a believer in keeping our local wine industry intact, Gov. Paterson’s proposal to allow wine to be sold in grocery stores has several flaws that the public should be made aware of. First, it will devastate the local wine industry. The small mom-and-pop wine stores will be will be forced out of business, unable to compete with the big-box stores. As Wal-Mart, Hannaford and Price Chopper would devote shelf space to big-name, lower-quality, inexpensive brands, New York wineries, which specialize in artisan, quality, small-production wines will be financially unable to compete with big national and European wineries for grocery store shelf space. In addition to failing to recognize the long-term damage to our local wine shop owners, this proposed budgetary item poses a direct danger to the youth of New York state. A wine and liquor specialty shop has knowledgeable sales staff, is closely regulated and is set up with safeguards to prevent minors from acquiring wine and hard alcohol. These safeguards include not hiring people under the age of 18 and not allowing unaccompanied minors in their stores. Grocery stores cannot abide by these rules because of the nature of their business. Many people do not realize that the average wine has three or four times the alcohol content of beer! Keeping wine under the same protection as hard liquor only makes sense. In Florida, California and Texas, three states where wine is sold in grocery stores, the number of alcohol-related fatalities per 100,000 is more than double that of New York state. I fail to see how this budgetary item that will close local businesses, cost our friends and neighbors jobs, cause more empty storefronts, endanger our youth and put undue stress on law enforcement is responsible government. More New Yorkers need to be made aware of the impact this law would have.
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