Editor’s note: Thanks to a change in state law in 2008, Coloradans can drop by their favorite liquor store on Sundays to grab a six-pack before a Broncos game. But you still can’t walk into a grocery store or convenience store and buy wine or spirits, much less full-strength suds. Those stores are only allowed to stock 3.2 beer, which has a lower alcohol content. Each year it seems a few bills bubble up at the statehouse that aim to tinker with Colorado’s crazy patchwork of liquor laws. This year, the battle is over whether to allow convenience and grocery stores to sell full-strength beer. We asked a few experts if these new bills would be good for consumers, or if there’s some other way to make Colorado liquor laws more fair, to even the playing field? Here’s what they had to say.
Butcher and barber shops, old- fashioned delis — all rapidly going the way of the dinosaur. We Americans love consolidation. Who cares about community when you can get it all done at Super Wal-mart? With the proposal to allow convenience stores to sell full-strength beer, local liquor stores and small microbreweries may be the next casualties of our “time is money” philosophy.
Colorado law currently prohibits liquor stores, bars and restaurants from selling 3.2-percent beer. The idea behind this is fairness. Liquor stores sell full- strength beer, microbrews, etc. Grocery stores sell 3.2 beer to even the playing field and prevent bars and liquor stores from cutting into their market.
The supermarket lobby is revving up with another effort to sell full-strength beer in convenience stores and supermarkets. According to spokesman Sean Duffy, “This whole mess can be solved with a simple bill that says let’s get rid of 3.2.” Duffy claims it’s a free-market issue and unfair to grocery stores and convenience marts.
The Colorado Licensed Beverage Association begs to differ. Spokeswoman Jeanne McEvoy noted during a hearing at the state Capitol that a similar law passed in South Dakota devastated small businesses. Within 10 years, the number of locally owned liquor stores dropped from 48 to three.
With the repeal of the 3.2 law, the door opens for Safeway, Loaf ‘N Jug and 7-Eleven to sell full-strength beer, driving local businesses into extinction and microbreweries right along with them.
Microbreweries depend heavily on liquor stores to carry their product. There’s no guarantee that supermarkets will sell their more expensive product. Odds are supermarkets will opt for popular name brands that bring in higher revenue and offer lower prices as a “reward” to frequent customers, a practice King Soopers and Safeway offer with discounted gasoline.
Coloradans for Convenience frames the issue as one of unfairness and cost burdening. I find it hard to take this argument seriously, that somehow these folks advocating for doing away with 3.2 beer have to drive great distances to find a liquor store or endure incredible hardship by making two stops instead of one.
With state unemployment hovering around 9 percent, do we really want to gamble with the future of thousands of small businesses and their employees? Will adding full-strength beer to the liquor aisle at Safeway create more jobs? Nope. But it sure will kill a few.
Linda Wagner lives in Estes Park.
