PUSH-BACK ON PATERSON BOOZE PLAN
SPECIALTY WINE SHOPS FEAR NEW COMPETITION FROM GROCERY STORES
By Dan Rivoli
Posted by Our Town on March 12, 2009 · View Comments
Gov. David Paterson is leaving no stone unturned—or wine bottle uncorked—in his search for money to plug the state’s budget gap. As part of his budget proposal, he announced a plan to allow grocery stores to sell wine.
The plan would generate an estimated $100 million a year through licensing fees from establishments such as grocery stores, which already have a liquor license to sell beer, that are interested in peddling wine alongside cheese, for example.
Currently, food establishments can only sell beer alongside food and cigarettes, while liquor and wine stores are prohibited from selling the soft drinks and mixers often used with hard alcohol.
An East 28th Street liquor store has posted a sign urging residents to oppose the governor’s proposal. Photo By Andrew Schwartz
Battle lines have been generally drawn with wine and liquor stores against the proposal, and grocery stores promoting it. Opponents of the plan predict that wine and liquor businesses will close and jobs will be lost. Even the state’s Professional Fire Fighters Association have come out against the plan, arguing that teen drinking and driving will skyrocket due to wine being sold in grocery stores.
Michael Eigen, owner of Premium Cru Wine Merchants at 1200 Madison Ave. and East 88th Street, has traveled to Albany in an effort to convince legislators to kill the proposal during budget negotiations.
“It will kill my business. Dean and Deluca down the block and the grocery store across the street will take the $10 wines,” Eigen said. “I do have a disproportionate amount of high-end wine. But you still do your bread and butter through [low-priced wine].”
Though proprietors of East Side wine purveyors aren’t exactly celebrating the proposal, some stores don’t seem too threatened. Grocery stores stocking mass-produced wine will not offer the selection or personal service valued by true oenophiles, said one East Side wine store manager who was not authorized to speak.
“We have an eclectic diversity of wines around the world,” the manager said. “People who buy jug wine stay on jug wine.”
For liquor and wine stores whose draw is a quick and cheap bottle of booze, grocery stores would knock off a portion of the customer base. Abe Weichman, who was filling in for his son at his shop 86th Street Wine and Liquor at 306 E. 86th St. and Second Avenue, said the plan would not sink their business if liquor stores can make up for the expected loss of customers by selling other goods.
“They will give you the opportunity to sell beer, cigarettes, et cetera,” he said. “It will not be a catastrophe in my eyes.”
John Catsimatidis, president of Red Apple Group, which owns Gristedes supermarket, lauded the proposal as a win for wine growers, wine consumers and, of course, grocery stores. Wine shops, he predicted, will remain unscathed by the additional competition.
“The supermarkets are not going to be able to carry all the specialty wines anyway,” Catsimatidis said. “The only thing it’s a negative for is liquor stores.”
