When lawmakers gather in Frankfort for the January long session, promoters of selling wine in grocery stores will be waiting for them, hoping to win approval on their third try.
Article originally posted by The (Bowling Green) Daily News directed to: http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/2009/09/20/news/news4.txt
Coalition is again eyeing wine sales in grocery stores
By JIM GAINES, The Daily News, jgaines@bgdailynews.com/783-3242
Sunday, September 20, 2009 12:02 AM CDT
When lawmakers gather in Frankfort for the January long session, promoters of selling wine in grocery stores will be waiting for them, hoping to win approval on their third try.
“This issue is going to be coming back before the legislature,” said Luke Schmidt, lobbyist for the Food With Wine Coalition, formed by grocery stores in 2007 to promote the idea.
Rep. Larry Clark, D-Louisville, submitted a bill in early 2008 to allow wine sales in grocery stores, but it never got out of committee. A similar bill proposed for the spring 2009 session wasn’t even formally filed. At the time, the Food With Wine Coalition announced that it planned to try again in 2010.
Schmidt said those two failures weren’t the fault of any serious opposition, but rather stemmed from bigger issues that preoccupied the General Assembly. The 2008 session was tied up in a leadership struggle, and the past session was too busy dealing with the state budget shortfall to bother with many other issues, he said.
In the January 2010 long session, however, there should be time to consider a variety of bills – including this one, Schmidt said. The coalition is just beginning to gauge legislative support and seek sponsors, he said.
State Sen. Mike Reynolds, D-Bowling Green, said he anticipates seeing the issue on the January agenda.
“I expect that that bill will be introduced in the House,” he said. “I am not sure about its total chances of success in next year’s session, but I do know that there is a large push on for it.”
To win passage, the group has to demonstrate widespread public support to legislators, Schmidt said. A petition drive in more than 100 grocery stores – including Kroger and Houchens stores locally – garnered about 56,000 signatures in late 2008. This year, however, the coalition is hoping to surpass that number online.
On Sept. 9, they began placing 5-foot-tall displays in many grocery stores asking “Where’s the wine?” These are followed by fliers at checkout counters, and both point shoppers toward an online petition at www.foodwithwine.org. By agreeing to sign it online, citizens also send an automatic note to their legislators, Schmidt said.
Displays are already up in Kroger stores, and are coming soon to Houchens, he said. The signs in more than 100 stores have already drawn “literally thousands” of letters, Schmidt said.
The coalition’s proposal would allow groceries to sell wine in areas that are already “wet” or “moist” – in this region, that would only allow sales in Bowling Green. The campaign isn’t aimed at selling alcohol where it’s now prohibited, selling hard liquor in grocery stores, or allowing Sunday sales; groceries just want to sell wine in their aisles as they do beer, without setting up a separate building for the product, Schmidt has said.
Kroger has recently opened its own wine and liquor stores adjacent to its three Bowling Green locations. Stephen Reed, director of retail operations for Houchens, has said the legalization of wine sales in grocery stores would include major Houchens stores and Crossroads markets in “wet” areas. That’s only about 10 or 15 stores out of the company’s 100, he said. Wine would not be sold in Houchens-owned convenience stores, Save-A-Lot or Food Giant stores, Reed said.
Thirty-four other states already allow wine sales in grocery stores, including six of the seven states bordering Kentucky, Schmidt said. In the only exception, Tennessee, there’s also a legislative push under way to legalize it, he said.
Schmidt gives three reasons for allowing sales in grocery stores. One is expanding competition beyond liquor stores’ “near monopoly,” thus aiding consumers. The second is increased sales from the 300 to 400 stores statewide that would be eligible to sell wine. In 2008, Schmidt estimated that the resulting increase in wine sales could add $55 million in new state tax revenue over five years, without hiking tax rates. This year he increased that projection to $84 million.
The third justification is the boost to Kentucky’s 50 wineries, and the vineyards in 86 of the state’s 120 counties, which now can only sell in liquor stores and their own tasting rooms, Schmidt said.
“At the moment, Kentucky wineries have pretty much maxed out where they can sell their product,” he said.
Reynolds said the change would probably cause price competition between groceries and liquor stores, so he understands that package liquor dealers probably won’t like it. But then it would promote Kentucky agriculture by offering a wider venue for local winemakers, and he expects lots of lobbying from that industry, he said.
It’s still too early for Reynolds to take a position, he said. He generally favors expanded commerce, but wants to see the details in a formal bill, he said.
“I’ve got mixed emotions about it,” Reynolds said.