Help Put Wine in Tennessee Grocery Stores
Until seeing it in the City Paper, I didn’t realize that Tennessee lawmakers were considering a proposal to allow wine sales in grocery stores. This is a good idea, and if you live in Tennessee I recommend that you support it.
Every state has different regulations for access to beer, wine, and spirits, and although Tennessee’s laws aren’t the most restrictive I have seen, they are among the most arbitrary and senseless. Municipal and county beer boards retain the authority to regulate beer, but the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission regulates “alcoholic and malt beverages.” Check out the Tennessee ABC’s liquor laws (PDF) if you’d like to see a 74-page illustration of costly and largely arbitrary regulation of every conceivable aspect of this industry.
For purposes of this post, the notable fact is grocery and convenience stores can sell beer, but wine and liquor must be sold in separate stores. Someone who owns both a beer store and a liquor store can put them right next to each other, on the same property and in the same building, but they must have separate doors and a dividing wall and the stores are governed by completely different sets of rules. Grocery and convenience stores can sell beer 24/7, but liquor stores have restricted hours and are closed on Sundays — if you want a bottle of wine for a date or a dinner party and it’s a Sunday, you are out of luck. And my favorite: liquor stores can’t sell any accessories related to wine or liquor, including mixers, glasses, serving supplies, and openers. That’s right, it is illegal in the state of Tennessee to buy a wine opener at a store that sells wine!
The AP story cited above lists some of the reasons lawmakers are squeamish about this law as “underage access to wine, the impact on small businesses and general resistance to making alcohol more easily accessible.” Not sure how this could hurt small businesses — large grocery chains sell beer and it doesn’t seem to run convenience stores out of the market — unless they mean competition generated by increased access to a particular product’s market generally benefits the consumer at the expense of the entrenched business interests. But the underage access claim is simply ridiculous, and here’s why: last year Tennessee passed a statewide law requiring an ID check on all alcohol purchases that specifically exempted liquor stores from the requirement!
Allowing wine sales in grocery stores is a good idea. It makes practical sense, it makes economic sense, and it makes sense in terms of increasing our freedom to make choices. I might even contend there is simply no reasonable argument against it unless you have a particular interest in preserving the status quo for your own financial ends or moral preferences. If you reside in Tennessee, I hope you will consider letting your representative know you support this change in the law regarding Tennessee wine sales.
[Update 3/16/09: Every side of a regulation fight has its special interest lobby, and the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association is one group representing the position I support. Here’s their website. I don’t endorse them or have any feeling about them whatsoever really, other than we happen to agree on which side is right and they have some good information on how you can get involved. Feel free to check them out.]
Post-St. Patrick’s Links of the Day wrote:
[…] Chad Wilcox says Tennessee may finally allow the sale of wine in the grocery store. Which I could th… […]
Posted on 18-Mar-09 at 8:08 am | Permalink
Jeff wrote:
This, like all alcohol laws, is something of a cultural issue at its heart. The hysteria around underage drinking - you know, acting as if everyone who drank under the age of 21 would DROP DEAD ZOMG!!!!11!1! - is what perpetuates idiocy like this.
Posted on 19-Mar-09 at 2:44 pm | Permalink
cristy wrote:
This law SHOULD not be passed. It will make buying alcohol more possible for minors. It will also put many people out of jobs and businesses out of business. In addition, for those people that actually care about wine, they will not be able to get the help and knowledge they need from a grocery store worker vs. someone who works at a wine shop.
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 10:25 am | Permalink
Chad wrote:
Cristy, thanks for your comment. I don’t see how it’s easier for minors to buy alcohol at a grocery store — which is required by state law to card for ALL alcohol purchases — than a wine & liquor store that is allowed to operate under a less strict carding law. I do agree that grocery store workers will be less equipped to offer assistance to people who actually care about wine, but I suspect those people will continue to go to stores where they can get help — and although this is not my preference, there’s also a market out there for people who just want to pick up the cheapest bottle.
As for the argument that improving availability of wine will cost jobs, it sounds like you are basing this argument on a general distrust for what happens when large grocery chains compete with smaller boutiques, but I suspect the market for wine is similar to the market for coffee. In the case of coffee, small independent shops actually flourished after the spread of Starbucks, because the increased availability of coffee created new customers, many of whom then wanted to develop their knowledge further.
And if I’m wrong, and it does turn out that customers would rather buy cheap wine at a grocery store than pay a slightly higher price (if not in money, than in time to travel to a second store) to receive personal assistance at a wine & liquor store, i.e. if the liquor store can’t win the competition for the customer’s dollar, then at least customer preferences will have been satisfied. All retailers campaign for business, and all customers vote with their dollars, and if at the end of the day customers prefer something different I don’t see how it’s appropriate for the businesses who don’t win the vote to argue for state protection from their former customers’ preferences.
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 10:45 am | Permalink
Lyndy wrote:
I believe wine should be available in grocery stores. There are many counties that do not sell liquor that could benefit from the tax on wine sold in grocery stores. Also teenagers in general are not interested in wine. This argument is made just because people against drinking can’t think of a reasonable reason to restrict the sale of wine.
Posted on 27-Mar-09 at 6:34 pm | Permalink