Supermarkets and big-box stores have tried — and failed — to convince New York state policymakers to let them sell wine for nearly two decades.
Now they’re trying a new approach: Asking to sell liquor, too.
A coalition of the largest grocers and retailers in the state — including Wegmans, Walmart and Target — is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany lawmakers to change state law to allow them to sell wine and spirits, which are currently restricted to the state’s roughly 4,000 licensed liquor stores.
The group, known as the Coalition to Expand Consumer Choice, has also expanded its ranks, adding organizations representing bodegas and convenience stores that want to expand their alcohol offerings, too.
The newly expanded coalition is hoping to make a case to Hochul and lawmakers that the state’s liquor laws, many of which date back to the fall of prohibition, are outdated and in need of significant reform. And that, they hope, could provide an opening to allow consumers to buy a bottle of pinot grigio at the local supermarket or a can of vodka seltzer at the corner bodega.
“[Wine in grocery stores] remains very important to us as a piece of this puzzle, but the work that we've done across the last couple of years revealed a much bigger and more consequential opportunity to bring New York's alcohol laws into step with today's marketplace,” said Mona Golub, chair of the coalition and a vice president for Northeast Grocery, the company that owns the regional Price Chopper and Tops grocery chains.
It’s a bold ask from the grocers and retailers who have, year after year, been unable to get wine on their shelves. The efforts have failed in large part due to opposition from liquor store owners who say allowing grocery stores to sell wine — and now, hard liquor — would put them out of business.
The liquor stores are vowing to fight back — again.
Since at least 2009, a pair of organizations representing liquor stores have worked to halt the annual push for wine in grocery stores. They’ve sought to cast liquor stores as mom-and-pop businesses — at one point, they referred to themselves as the Last Store on Main Street coalition — while accusing the big-box stores of trying to put them under.
Stefan Kalogridis, who owns Colvin Wine Merchants, an Albany wine and liquor shop in the same plaza as a Hannaford supermarket, said the calculus for the supermarkets is simple.
“ It's a matter of greed,” said Kalogridis, president of the NYS Liquor Store Association. “ It happens every year. They keep on trying and trying and trying, and the small guy — our association, the small retailers, mom-and-pop stores — are going to keep on fighting it.”
The Coalition to Expand Consumer Choice, meanwhile, is hoping its newly expanded roster will undermine the liquor stores’ David versus grocery Goliath narrative.
Along with the grocery chains and big-box retailers, the coalition also includes Amazon (which owns Whole Foods), Instacart and some wineries. But by adding bodegas and convenience stores to the mix, the group is emphasizing that not all small-business owners are opposed to ending the liquor stores’ ability to exclusively sell wine and spirits.
“Our customers deserve more choices and the ability to decide what works best for their families, and small businesses deserve the opportunity to compete and serve them,” said Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, which is a member of the coalition.
Some convenience store and bodega owners have their eye on so-called “ready to drink” beverages — canned, premixed cocktails or seltzers with hard liquor, such as a High Noon or Surfside — that are also exclusive to liquor stores.
But not all of them are on board. Frank Marte, a Bronx bodega owner who heads the Bodega & Small Business Group, said he has concerns about the ready to drink beverages and how they’re regulated. He fears it could lead to drunken behavior outside their stores.
Marte said his group wants the ability to sell wine. But as of late last week, the group hadn’t joined the coalition as he waits to hear more specifics about the coalition’s official positions.
“ You buy wine because it's for an occasion, to take it home, to take some place that you're going to have a good time,” he said. “The [ready to drink beverages] are very different because it’s a mix of cheap liquor.”
Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, a Bronx Democrat, sponsors a bill that would allow grocery stores and bodegas to sell wine and spirits. She said she thinks the prior focus on wine in grocery stores was too restrictive.
“ I think there's actually a larger opportunity to discuss wine, liquor, THC beverages and really be thinking about the industry overall and really shaping a market that provides the maximum amount of opportunity for New Yorkers in terms of choice as consumers, but also for businesses,” she said.
Kalogridis, the head of the liquor store association, said he and his fellow shop owners are ready for a fight.
“ A lot of us are immigrants that came in and opened up these stores since Prohibition,” he said. “And we're doing quite fine. Just leave us alone.”
