Grocery store wine sales may come up again soon

NASHVILLE -- A key legislative proponent of allowing Tennessee grocery stores to sell wine says he may push the bill again in 2010 rather than waiting until 2011 if he sees sufficient public demand for change.

"It just depends," Senate State and Local Government Committee Chairman Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, said. "I won't say that it won't happen. It depends. Right now I'm looking at 2011."

But Sen. Ketron, who sponsored this year's version of the bill permitting grocery stores to sell wine, said he may push the bill again "based on the input that we get and how far down the road we kick this can in terms of trying to unravel all the restrictions and everything."

Grocers, which cannot sell wine in Tennessee, plan to step up their efforts to enlist Tennessee consumers in their struggle to persuade the General Assembly to permit them to add wine, according to one official. The stores can sell beer.

Thirty-three states, including Georgia, permit grocery stores to sell wine. The Tennessee legislation has stalled in the last three sessions of the General Assembly. After it ran into trouble for the third straight year last spring, Sen. Ketron pushed for a legislative study committee, which is studying not only that issue but many of Tennessee's Depression-era alcohol laws.

Last year, the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience Store Association launched its "Red, White & Food" campaign, which has urged Tennessee consumers to contact their legislators. The group now claims 20,500 members and has started a political action committee.

"As we go into the session I think we're going to pick up a number of new members, and I think we're going to provide that platform (Red, White & Food) to help the general consumers know how to communicate with their particular legislator," said Jarron Springer, the grocers association president. "I think they're going to get quite a bit of communications. I think that's what he (Ketron) means."

Mr. Springer said that for "years and years our consumers have asked for this product to be in the stores. It's something people want to buy at the same time they're buying their dinner."

Grocery stores argue that allowing them to sell wine will cut costs for consumers and boost consumers' convenience in buying wine. They also point to legislative staff estimates that allowing groceries to sell wine would boost sagging state taxes by $16 million a year and inject another $11 million into local government coffers.

But those arguments have failed to persuade many lawmakers, including Rep. Richard Floyd, R-Chattanooga.

"I don't think we need to make alcohol any more accessible in any form to the public," Rep. Floyd said. "Over 50,000 people last year were killed by people driving drunk. There's no way you can measure the costs of alcohol and the negative impact that it has on the state and the effect on families and lives in the community."

Grocery store sales of wine also are opposed by the Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association, which represents some 550 liquor store owners, as well as the powerful Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Tennessee.

Liquor store retailers warn changes would jeopardize hundreds of small businesses and the jobs of 3,000 employees as chains such as Walmart and Kroger begin selling wine.

They also argue that allowing grocery stores and especially convenience stores to sell wine will aggravate underage drinking.

Wine and Spirits Retailers Association Vice President Chip Christianson, owner of Nashville liquor store J. Barleycorn, warned Sen. Ketron's study panel last month that wine should remain highly regulated.

"Wine is not food," Mr. Christianson said. "Wine is not beer. Wine has more than double the alcohol content of beer. That quite simply is why your predecessors in the legislature restricted the sale of wine to liquor stores."

Repeated efforts last week to speak with another retailer association director, Chris Bratcher of Riverside Wine & Spirits in Chattanooga, were unsuccessful.

Sen. Ketron said he hopes to have the study panel meet again on Dec. 8. He said he believes a number of store owners would be interested in changing the law to let them sell other items such as bloody mary and magarita mixes as well as ice. State law could also be adjusted to allow liquor store owners to have more than one establishment, he said.

Costly lobbying

With big dollars riding on the outcome, both sides have spent large sums to push their cases in the General Assembly, figures show.

Over the past two legislative sessions, associations for grocers, liquor store owners and wine-and-liquor wholesalers collectively have spent between $1 million to $1.78 million for top top-notch lobbyists and PR firms, according to their Tennessee Ethics Commission filings.

The grocers, for example, spent between $450,000 and $800,000 on lobbyists and lobbying-related expenses such as PR efforts. Liquor retailers spent between $100,000 to $240,000. Liquor wholesalers spent between $485,000 and $745,000.

During the 2008 election cycle and into 2009, a liquor wholesalers' political action committee shelled out $165,800 in campaign contributions to lawmakers, legislative caucuses or leadership PACs. Liquor retailers coughed up $43,300 over the same period. The grocers' PAC gave just $7,300.

But opponents of wine in grocery stores include more than just liquor interests. Tennessee Baptists and some other religious conservatives are less than excited about the prospect of widening wine sales.

"I find it ironic (even funny) that Baptists would be on the same side as the liquor industry, but it is true in this case, even though for totally different reasons," wrote Lonnie Wilkey, editor of Tennessee Baptist Convention's Baptist and Reflector publication, in an editorial published in February.