Big, powerful retail chains King Soopers, Safeway and Walmart want to sell full-strength beer and wine and perhaps even hard liquor in all of their stores. They are sick of the Colorado General Assembly telling them “no,” so they have formed a coalition, Your Choice Colorado, to put the question directly to voters via a ballot initiative in 2016.
Proponents of the initiative argue that convenience is paramount to today’s consumers, who value time nearly as much as money. They also point to the thousands of new arrivals flocking here from other states that do allow unrestricted liquor sales in grocery stores. These recent transplants just don’t understand why they can’t pick up a pound of ground round and a fifth of Scotch all in one stop.
If it’s no big deal where they’re from, why is it forbidden here?
Of course, backers of the initiative fail to address just how convenient it already is to buy liquor in Colorado. It seems as though alcohol is available nearly everywhere in this state, except at day care centers. Unlike buying a gun, people do not have to undergo a background check to purchase liquor. There are no laws restricting how much alcohol can be bought at one time. Of-age shoppers can check out of a liquor store with 20 cases of wine and no one will look askance at them. They might have to endure a stale joke from the cashier (“Hey, I want to be invited to your party”), but otherwise no one will stand in their way.
This was certainly not the case back when Prohibition took effect in 1920, a movement noble in concept, high-minded in purpose, but disastrous in reality. In a little over a decade, violence spiked, with criminal gangs fighting to fill the enormous demand for alcohol.
Colorado was actually ahead of the rest of the country back then, going dry on Dec. 31, 1915, forcing the prestigious Denver Athletic Club to dispose of its fabulous wine collection, considered one of the best in the country. However, even under Prohibition strictures, there were loopholes in the state’s liquor laws. Doctors were free to prescribe 4-ounce doses of liquor for all manner of ills, which of course people immediately contracted. The church-going population was allowed to consume alcohol for religious ceremonies, although one pious congregation pushed that loophole too far, getting caught for reportedly imbibing 400 gallons of sacramental wine in a month.
The repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933 meant liquor was once again legal and readily available in Colorado, and it has remained so throughout the decades. Given the ease with which one can currently procure liquor in this state, are full-strength beer and wine sales in supermarkets really necessary? No. This is not something that consumers are demanding, but rather a push by the big chains intent on enhancing their own bottom lines.
And if initiative backers are going to argue for convenience, why stop at grocery stores? People are known to patronize other retailers. To make life a little easier for their busy DIY’ers, why shouldn’t Lowe’s or Home Depot be free to sell homegrown craft brews along with lumber, paint and toilets? Shoppers at Best Buy might enjoy the convenience of buying a jug of whiskey along with the latest big-screen smart TV.
And surely ladies who have put on substantial poundage over the winter months would love it if they could take home a bottle or three of a good chardonnay from their local clothing retailer to ease the pain of trying on swimsuits in front of full-length mirrors.
Teresa Keegan works for the courts in Denver. E-mail her at b161tak@ .
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