Tennessee Wine in Grocery Stores

Tennessee Wine in Grocery Stores

Both sides of the issue, a bill that would allow grocery and convenience stores sell wine undertook one last effort to influence Tennessee lawmakers Monday prior to the vote in the state legislature.

Liquor store owners, grocery store operators, wine shoppers, a sheriff, an addiction specialist and a minister were all allowed to testify at a special inquiry held a day before the Senate State & Local Government Committee will vote on the biggest change in Tennessee’s liquor laws in decades.

Those in favor argued that grocery store sales will present more competition and increase convenience for wine shoppers. Those opposed argue relaxing the state’s liquor laws will lead to more drinking and that officials will have difficulty limiting expansion solely to wine in grocery stores.

The hour and a half meeting was meant to give committee members more information about Senate Bill 837  (click for entire bill) ahead of today’s vote,,, the first since supporters of wine-in-supermarkets began their most recent push in 2007.

The biggest difference in this year’s legislation is it would require cities to hold referendums on whether to allow wine to be sold in their supermarkets

The arguments varied widely. Grocery store operators said liquor stores should be required to compete for wine sales rather than having the guarantee of a state liquor license.

A West Nashville wine shopper told the panel that the limits placed on wine sales sometimes force her to bring her children into liquor stores. “I don’t know if you’ve ever taken children to a liquor store, but it’s an ordeal,” she said. “I’ve got sweet kids. They want to help me shop. They want to help me pick out the wine and roll the carts.”

Alternatively, liquor store owners said it will be difficult for lawmakers to keep convenience stores from also selling wine and to limit them to selling only wine and beer. Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork (click for website) suggested convenience stores will card less often than liquor store operators, while Peter Martin, a Vanderbilt University psychiatry professor, (click for BIO) said addiction to alcohol could rise.

Randy Davis,  (Click for website) executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, said liquor referendums will damage the state. “The fabric of Tennessee is made up of smaller communities,” he said. “It gets bad in these towns when you have these kinds of issues.”

However most of the members appeared to have little need for more discussion. The little debate that did take place largely came at the instigation of supporters, who demanded data from opponents to back up their claims. “I think some of their testimony was kind of bogus,” said state Senator Bill Ketron, (click for BIO)  R-Murfreesboro, the sponsor of the new law.

Senator Ken Yager, the committee’s chairman, said he plans to hold a vote on the legislation at the panel’s next meeting this morning. Senator Bill Ketron predicted the vote would be close, but he said he plans to press ahead with the measure even if it stands a chance of defeat.

“This is the first time in the Senate we’ve brought it up to vote,” he said. “I think it’s time to do that.”

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