Grocery and liquor store owners spar over wine sales

 As Jackson liquor store owners supplied New Year's celebrations last week, they said they hoped 2010 or the years that follow won't bring added competition in wine sales that some say could force them to cut jobs and close businesses.

The state's food stores are pushing again to allow Tennesseans to buy wine with their groceries, and legislators spent part of the fall studying the issue.

Proponents say wine in grocery stores is a natural fit that could bring millions in much-needed tax revenue into state coffers and potentially help boost sales of wine in liquor stores.

Jarron Springer, president of the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience Stores Association, said wider availability of wine likely will lead to an increase in sales instead of a shift of existing sales from liquor stores to grocery stores.

"I think if (liquor stores) have got a good business model, if they've done a pretty good job, they're going to keep those customers in their stores," Springer said.

But liquor store owners say they expect thousands of lost jobs because of slashed sales revenue if wine sales are allowed in grocery stores. They also are unmoved by the possibility of a trade-off that would loosen sales restrictions on their stores to allow them to deal in items such as corkscrews and snacks.

"They've offered the smallest little pittance. Nothing really changed," said Michael Everett, owner of Jackson's The Forked Vine. "It's an absolute farce."

A recent survey sent out by Republican state Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro, the chairman of a study committee on allowing wine in grocery stores, asks liquor store owners about their stances on issues ranging from selling beer with liquor to limiting state regulation.

Bob Lindsey, the owner of Lynnwood Wine and Spirits in Jackson, provided a copy of his survey, in which he answered "No" to everything except mandatory identification checks on all liquor sales.

In an e-mail to Ketron he also provided, Lindsey said he cannot afford the additional cost of selling beer and is not interested in doing so.

He and his employees also predicted in an interview last week that wine in grocery stores could cost Tennesseans personalized service and push up the price of hard liquors such as bourbon and vodka.

"We wonder where we're going to be next year," Lindsey said. His store is in the parking lot of the shopping center that includes a Kroger store off North Parkway.

Lindsey also raised concerns about possible negative social effects of the sale of widely available cheap wine, and liquor store owners have raised safety concerns related to the increased availability of wine.

Springer rejected such claims.

"It's scare tactics," Springer said. "I think people see right through that."