Wandering through the grocery store, you pick up your steak and your potatoes, your sour cream and your seasonings. Now all you need is that special bottle of wine to make it all complete.
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Wandering through the grocery store, you pick up your steak and your potatoes, your sour cream and your seasonings. Now all you need is that special bottle of wine to make it all complete.
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ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) — In 34 states, including West Virginia, grocery store wine sales are the norm. In Kentucky, however, it’s the exception.
Article originally posted by the WSAZ-TV (Huntington/Ashland) Web site with accompanying video news story directed to:http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/62995612.html
ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) — In 34 states, including West Virginia, grocery store wine sales are the norm. In Kentucky, however, it’s the exception.
Now, the industry push is fully uncorked to allow Bluegrass State grocery stores to sell wine. WSAZ.com’s Randy Yohe looked inside this issue, explaining what it will take — and what stores say all will gain — by selling wine with food.
At the Krogergrocery store location in Barboursville, W.Va., store managers say their expansive well-maintained wine department is a driving force in food sales. Shoppers such as Randy Wilson say — like a good restaurant — it makes sense to buy wine with your food.
“I buy wine for my meals,” he said. “It’s just like buying milk.”
But at the Kroger store in Ashland there’s a big sign next to the beer aisle asking rhetorically, “Where’s the wine?” Kentucky’s food store industry has formed the Food and Wine Coalition, a nonprofit lobby group urging Kentuckians to go online and petition their state representatives to allow wine sales in grocery stores.
According to Luke Schmidt with the Food and Wine Coalition, the issue would have to be passed by the state General Assembly since Kentucky has no voter referendum option.
At the Ashland Kroger, managers say people — mostly out-of-town residents — are always asking, “Where’s the wine?”
“It would be a win-win,” assistant store manager Jeff Johnson said. “We would gain profits, and customers would have more choices to buy wine.”
Coalition officials say the benefits would be bountiful — first, that wine with groceries would expand consumer choices in the marketplace and compete with liquor stores that have had a monopoly since prohibition.
Secondly, the commonwealth would collect more taxes — the coalition estimates $84 million in five years. Third, the added products would promote the growing Kentucky wine industry.
The coalition says the law would only take effect in already wet communities; dry areas would stay dry. The coalition also says wine is the second fastest growing product category — after bottled water — being sold in American food stores.
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Ashland — Grocers make a point of knowing what their customers want to buy and are hoping state lawmakers will help them respond to people who want a glass of wine with their dinner.
Article originally posted by the Ashland Daily Independent directed to: http://dailyindependent.com/local/x546117517/Grocers-seek-wine-option
Grocers seek wine option
Ashland — Grocers make a point of knowing what their customers want to buy and are hoping state lawmakers will help them respond to people who want a glass of wine with their dinner.
“The grocery industry decided it is time to push this forward,” said Luke Schmidt, a spokesman for the Food With Wine Coalition. The coalition is a nonprofit agency formed by Kentucky’s grocers to seek a change in state law allowing grocery stores to sell wine, instead of limiting wine to the shelves of liquor stores.
“There are three reasons why this is compelling,” he said, explaining the idea would benefit consumers and promote competition, increase state tax revenues without enacting any new taxes, and lend support to Kentucky’s emerging wine industry as well as farmers who’ve switched from tobacco to grapes as an alternate cash crop.
State legislators weren’t able to discuss the proposal during their most recent short session in Frankfort, Schmidt said, although they are expected to study the idea in January.
In the meantime, the state’s grocers are urging consumers to let their state representatives know what they want. Store displays will guide wine lovers to a Web site where they are asked to take roughly 30 seconds to complete a petition and generate a letter to the appropriate elected officials.
“We’ve only been promoting it for about two weeks and it has already generated several thousand letters,” Schmidt said.
The coalition proposal would not have any effect on “dry” counties, Schmidt stressed, and would leave the sale of wine at grocery stores in the hands of store managers and owners.
“This does not mandate they sell wine. This is not a mandatory thing at all,” he said. “But we believe most will want to supply their customers with what they have been asking for.”
The coalition has provided information about the effort to Ashland area grocery stores, including Kroger, with displays that ask, “Where’s the wine?” and detailed information at checkout counters.
The idea does have some enemies, Schmidt said.
“The only opposition we know of is from liquor stores. They’ll tell you we are going to put them out of business,” Schmidt said, adding the proposal “is not a prelude to distilled spirits in grocery stores.”
Schmidt asks consumers who support the sale of wine at grocery stores to visit foodwithwine.org and click on the “Sign the Petition” link. The coalition is also represented on social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.
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ASHLAND, KY — The Food and Wine Coalition is pushing for wine to be sold in grocery stores in Kentucky.
Members of the coalition gathered in Ashland Tuesday to announce the launching of an online petition. They want to change the existing state law to allow grocery stores to sell wine in counties that also allow the sale of alcoholic beverages by the package.
Those who want to sign the petition can go to www.foodwithwine.org.
By Latasha Hughes ASHLAND, KY — The Food and Wine Coalition is pushing for wine to be sold in grocery stores in Kentucky. Members of the coalition gathered in Ashland Tuesday to announce the launching of an online petition. They want to change the existing state law to allow grocery stores to sell wine in counties that also allow the sale of alcoholic beverages by the package. “It expands the choice for the consumer in the market place. It expands competition, said Luke Schmidt, Food with Wine Coalition member. “It increases tax revenue for the state to the tune of $84 million over the first 5 years and it will benefit Kentucky’s growing wine industry because it will give those wineries 400 new sales outlets.” Kentuckians can visit www.foodwithwine.org and click on the Sign the Petition link to sign the petition.
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Could you soon see wine in Kentucky grocery stores? Currently, only beer is available at your local supermarket but one group is hoping that legislators will pass a new law. You can currently buy wine in grocery stores in West Virginia and Ohio.
Reported by: Steve Borecky
Videographer: Jarod Herrell
Web Producer: Steve Borecky
Updated: September 29, 2009 5:06pm
Could you soon see wine in Kentucky grocery stores?
Currently, only beer is available at your local supermarket but one group is hoping that legislators will pass a new law. You can currently buy wine in grocery stores in West Virginia and Ohio.
The state’s Wine with Food Coalition says it would generate an additional $84 million in revenue without raising taxes.
The bill would not change current alcohol laws and would not put the alcohol on store shelves in dry counties.
Many in the Bluegrass State think its a good idea and say it’s an inconvenince not being able to buy it now at the supermarket. “It truly is to have to make a stop at another store, especially when picking up beer for your husband and you want a bottle of wine and have to go to another store,” commented Paulette York of Boyd County.
For more information and to sign a petition, log on to winewithfood.org.
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Kentucky has a litany of laws regulating how alcohol is sold and consumed, as it should. It’s right for the state to bar people from carrying loaded firearms in establishments where liquor is sold by the drink.
Article originally posted by the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer directed to: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=12AEA31E40C85140&p_docnum=2&s_orderid=NB0110120219082911945&s_dlid=DL0110120219084912006&s_ecproduct=SBK-W3&s_ecprodtype=&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=&s_referrer=&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F09%2F2010%202%3A08%20PM&s_docsbal=Docs%20remaining%3A%202&s_subexpires=12%2F09%2F2010%202%3A08%20PM&s_docstart=3&s_docsleft=2&s_docsread=1&s_username=lbschmidt@lbschmidt.com&s_accountid=AC0110052614253132185&s_upgradeable=no
Wine sales expansion benefits Kentucky
Published: September 23, 2009
Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer
Kentucky has a litany of laws regulating how alcohol is sold and consumed, as it should. It’s right for the state to bar people from carrying loaded firearms in establishments where liquor is sold by the drink. And a 1942 law that prohibits retailers from selling booze to someone known to the courts as not providing for his family is obscure, but logical.
But other provisions of Kentucky’s alcohol laws make less sense, including restrictions that have essentially blocked grocery storesfrom selling wine for decades. Kentucky is missing out on a potential source of new revenue, and wine consumers are unnecessarily inconvenienced and restricted in their choices.
For a third year, an advocacy group created by Kentucky’s grocery store industry is pushing for those restrictions to be dropped when the legislature reconvenes in January. The Food With Wine Coalition, which is supported by the state’s wine industry, is hoping Kentucky will become the 35th state to allow wine sales at grocery stores.
It’s a change that’s overdue for Kentucky. Wine is now lumped in with hard liquor in terms of sales restrictions despite the fact it is closer in potency to malt beverages, which grocery stores are allowed to sell. Wine sales are restricted to liquor stores or to portions of a store that are accessible only by those 21 or older.
The state is placing an unnecessary inconvenience on consumers looking to purchase a bottle of wine. Since wine is a beverage that is often paired with food, it’s naturally a product food retailers should be able to offer. The state already places requirements upon grocery clerks to help ensure beer isn’t sold to minors that would extend to wine sales and ease concerns about illegal sales.
The main opposition to this move is from liquor retailers, who have enjoyed a veritable monopoly on wine sales under state law. But allowing grocery store wine sales will have a net increase on the amount of wine sold in Kentucky instead of merely dividingwine sales between the two types of retailers.
Removing that monopoly will impact wine sales at liquor stores, but isn’t likely to drive these stores out of business. Other states that allow wine sales at grocery stores also have liquor stores in abundance. Liquor stores will need to become more competitive, but won’t be trampled by grocery stores entering the market.
The Kroger grocery chain has told the coalition that wine is the most requested item that they don’t stock in their stores, which further indicates an untapped market. Making it more readily available will drive up sales and allow additional opportunities forKentucky’s growing wine industry.
Changes in Kentucky’s alcohol tax this year will mean additional revenues for the state as wine sales expand. The Food With WineCoalition estimates that wine sales will increase by 50 percent by 2012 and generate an additional $84 million in tax revenue for the state.
It’s time for the state to step out of the way and give wine consumers and grocery retailers more options.
Unlike a fine wine, these restrictions don’t grow better with age.
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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.
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Food and wine often go well together but here in Kentucky, the two aren’t sold together. One group hopes to change that.
Article originally posted by the WBKO-TV Web site directed to: http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/59780442.html
Food with Wine Coalition Launches Online Petition
Food and wine often go well together but here in Kentucky, the two aren’t sold together. One group hopes to change that.
Posted: 4:31 PM Sep 18, 2009
Reporter: Kirk Butts
Email Address: kirk.butts@wbko.com
Food and wine often go well together but here in Kentucky, the two aren’t sold together.
One group hopes to change that.
The Food with Wine Coalition was organized in 2007 by Kentucky’s food store industry.
The group says 34 states, including six of Kentucky’s seven bordering states, allow wine to be sold in supermarkets.
The coalition believes by allowing it here, Kentucky farmers and wineries will benefit, and millions of dollars of tax revenuecan also be gained.
“We’re encouraging people who are interested in this issue and want to support it to go to our websitefoodwithwine.org, sign our petition,” says coalition consultant Luke Schmidt.
“And two things will happen. First of all not only will you sign the petition but by doing so, it will automatically generate a letter to your specific state senator and state representative indicating your support for the issue.”
Click Hereto learn more about the initiative and sign the petition yourself.
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Kentucky grocery stores are launching a campaign to gain the right to sell wine. The Food With Wine Coalition is campaigning to convince state legislators to change the law to allow wine sales in grocery stores.
Article originally posted by the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer directed to: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=12ADFA6428C46AA8&p_docnum=3&s_dlid=DL0110120219175506943&s_ecproduct=SBK-W3&s_ecprodtype=&s_trackval=&s_siteloc=&s_referrer=&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F09%2F2010%202%3A08%20PM&s_docsbal=Docs%20remaining%3A%201&s_subexpires=12%2F09%2F2010%202%3A08%20PM&s_docstart=3&s_docsleft=1&s_docsread=2&s_username=lbschmidt@lbschmidt.com&s_accountid=AC0110052614253132185&s_upgradeable=no
Grocery stores wanting to sell wine launch campaign
James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer
Published: September 19, 2009
Kentucky grocery stores are launching a campaign to gain the right to sell wine. The Food With Wine Coalition is campaigning to convince state legislators to change the law to allow wine sales in grocery stores. In counties that permit alcohol sales, grocerystories can sell beer, but not wine.
Luke B. Schmidt, who is advocating on behalf of the Food With Wine Coalition, said 34 states allow wine to be sold in groceries. Permitting such sales in Kentucky would benefit state wine producers and increase tax revenue, Schmidt said.
“This issue from the beginning has been driven by consumers,” Schmidt said Friday. “Nationwide in grocery stores, wine is the second-fastest-growing category, next to bottled water.
“Kroger tells us wine is the No. 1 requested (item) in their stores that they don’t have,” Schmidt said.
The coalition has tried to get a bill introduced. During the 2008 legislative session, Rep. Larry Clark introduced one, but it was not taken up by legislators. An attempt was made again during the 2009 “short session,” but the session was dominated by budget issues, Schmidt said.
Liquor stores have opposed such legislation. Schmidt said that in the 34 states that allow grocery stores to sell wine, “liquor storeshaven’t gone out of business.”
In Indiana and Illinois, the most popular wines sold in grocery stores are produced in those states, Schmidt said. “There’s absolutely no question this will be good for the wine industry,” he said. “Almost every county has a vineyard,” but those winescan now be sold only at the wineries themselves or at liquor stores.
“There’s no question if you make wine more available, you’re going to sell more of it,” he said.
The coalition has estimated the state will see a $30.1 million increase in sales taxes the first year wine sales are allowed in grocerystores. Over five years, such sales would raise an estimated $84 million in new sales tax revenue, Schmidt said.
“The bill we have in mind is very simple, very straight-forward. All we want to do is create a new license category,” Schmidt said.
The organization has a petition on its Web site, www.foodwithwine.org. When people sign the petition, a letter will be automatically generated and sent to the appropriate state legislator, Schmidt said.
“We’re going to make a hard push between now and January,” he said.
Allowing wine sales would not legalize selling alcohol in “dry” counties. A public “wet/dry” vote would have to be held in the county before groceries could sell wine or beer.
“This issue will impact wet and moist counties only,” he said. ” … If a county wants to consider going wet, that’s their option.”
James Mayse, 691-7303,jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com