ALBANY - A new proposal to sell wine in New York supermarkets is surfacing in Albany after liquor store interests helped kill an earlier bill.
But Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, of Monroe County, is proposing elements to the bill aimed at the long-standing concerns of liquor store owners worried that selling wine in supermarkets would kill their businesses.
Grocery store chains that want to legalize wine sales in their stores say it will add $160 million in revenues to the state in the first two years and save New Yorkers $80 million in lower prices through greater competition. Advocates also claim the law would add 2,000 jobs and help New York wineries.
But liquor store owners fear the measure would drive out one of the state's last vestiges of mom-and-pop retail.
Grocery store chains that want to legalize wine sales in their stores say it will add $160 million in revenues to the state in the first two years and save New Yorkers $80 million in lower prices through greater competition. Advocates also claim the law would add 2,000 jobs and help New York wineries.
But liquor store owners fear the measure would drive out one of the state's last vestiges of mom-and-pop retail.
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Post your comment - click hereThere are 7 comment(s)
lookinggood wrote on May 22, 2009 8:08 PM:
marsha wrote on May 22, 2009 3:25 PM:
091951 wrote on May 22, 2009 3:13 PM:
justventing wrote on May 22, 2009 2:20 PM:
childofthekorn1318 wrote on May 22, 2009 11:11 AM:
GiveMeLiberty wrote on May 22, 2009 9:06 AM:
If your business model relies on the government placing restrictions on competing businesses just to keep you afloat, then you deserve to fail.
With that said, I should add that I highly doubt the fear-mongering about liquor stores going out of business. Want to believe it yourself? Go to the liquor store on Seminary. Look around and realize that there are tens of thousands of bottles in there, representing thousands of different products, and not all of them are wine. It's very hard to imagine a place like that getting shut down by Wegmans opening up a wine shelf back there next to the beer. "
brew1234 wrote on May 22, 2009 8:03 AM: