Wine sales in groceries will hurt small business

As the owner of a small wine and spirits store in Endicott, I would like to address Gov. Paterson's plan to increase state revenue by allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores.

 The only thing that I can see this doing is putting a lot of the smaller stores out of business. New York is always touting how "friendly" New York is to small business, it seems that "small" to the politician is having 500 or 1,000 employees. New York doesn't seem to care about the "mom-and-pop" businesses.

My argument with this budget proposal is twofold.

* One: In the wine and spirit business, the larger quantity of product that you buy, the better price you get. Therefore the retail price to the consumer goes down. The large grocers will be able to take advantage of this on every wine they sell. They can afford it, unlike smaller stores, and they have the capacity to store the large quantity. Selling wine at a greatly reduced cost will hurt sales tax revenue. Has anyone thought of this?

* Two: Many of the larger grocery chains are headquartered in other states. The profits made on the sale of wines will be sent to the corporate headquarters. Currently, the money generated by liquor stores stays in New York, as the stores are all locally owned by people who live in New York, pay taxes in New York and shop in New York.

The large grocery stores won't have to hire any more workers; wine will just be another product for them to sell. If this bill passes, it will put many small stores out of business, increase the number of unemployed, and worsen the economy while making no difference in state revenues.

I understand the dire economic straits that New York and other states face. Gov. Paterson plans to raise the excise tax on alcohol, OK. Belts need to be tightened. The state needs to generate more revenue.

But I do not believe that allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores will benefit the state in any way. The only ones to benefit will be "Big Business." So let's show the small liquor stores that New York is "Friendly to small business."

Spain owns Glendale Spirits in Endicott.