Bill to allow supermarket wine sales draws fire

Hundreds of neighborhood package stores could be in danger of going out of business if the legislature allows supermarket chains to sell wine, state lawmakers were warned Thursday.

During a virtual public hearing before the General Law Committee, retailers including Maureen Abrahamson, who along with her husband Mark owns Mo’s Wine & Spirits in Fairfield, charged that a proposed bill threatens the livelihoods of more than 1,250 package stores with 15,000 employees statewide.

“I believe that most of our citizens do not want Connecticut to be anything like Florida or Delaware, where big-box retailers take over, put the little stores out of business, decimate our quintessential New England street scapes and downtowns, and create concrete wastelands,” Abrahamson told the committee.

Similar legislation failed in 2019 under a barrage of opposition from package store owners throughout the state. The new proposal would also allow big-box stores such as Costco and B.J.’s to sell beer, if locations already have licenses to sell alcohol, with separate entrances.

In previous years Rich Dunn, one of the owners of Ninety 9 Bottles on Liberty Square in Norwalk, would take to Hartford in opposition

of the bill.

“They had these rallies and there would be people from package stores, and Stop & Shop brought a whole bunch of employees there,” Dunn said. But due to the coronavirus, he stayed at the store.

For Dunn, the biggest injustice of the bill is how grocery stores will be allowed to take part of a localized market, while small package stores aren’t allowed to sell food.

“That’s where it’s unfair, we don’t sell steak and meat,” Dunn said. “But it is what it is. They’ve been pushing this for years.”

“There is only so much that a population can consume,” Abrahamson said. “So, if you want to cut up the pie into smaller and smaller slices by giving it away to big box retailers and grocery stores, you will put the little guy out of business. I get the idea of convenience for the customer, but Connecticut was set up to have separate stores on purpose.”

She said that package stores in many cases have kept downtown areas alive during the pandemic.

“Our business model is structured around serving our customers who happen to be our neighbors and our friends, not a gaggle of wealthy investors around a table in a closed room,” she said at the start of an anticipated day-long hearing on a variety of alcohol-related bills. Included is a proposed three-year extension of the pandemic emergency order that allows restaurants to deliver wine, beer and mixed drinks in sealed containers.

Package stores make much of their profits through wine sales, package store owners said.

“These predatory proposals against package stores are detrimental to the network of small businesses within the liquor industry in normal times, but even more so during an economic crisis and pandemic,” said Carroll Hughes, executive director of the Connecticut Package Stores Association. “The proposals are a disaster, a sea change that will drive out several hundred stores, for what? To move sales from your hardworking constituents’ small businesses to the retail giants who have already forced other small businesses to close their doors.”

“Why would any representative of the people in this state, my state, vote in favor of a bill that indisputably only benefits giant companies that have no need for support?” she said after being introduced to the committee by state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, who is concerned about his local businesses.

“They are currently one of the most-stable retail establishments during this COVID-pandemic crisis ,” Hwang said. “And one of the most-significant contributors to our community by supporting restaurants and non-profits. They sell only three products: wine, beer and spirits. These stores are what people have build their lives on and they’re owned by life-long Connecticut residents, immigrants and generations of family owners.”

Michael Interlandi, owner of White Bridge Wines & Spirits in Darien, for the past 40 years said if the bill passes he will surely have to close. Harsha Bethi, whose family has owned a package store in Norwalk for the last five years, agreed.

But Dave Ackert, a Newtown businessman, told the committee that in the COVID pandemic, he would like to be able to do more shopping in one retail location. “Like many of you, I have had to reduce the number of trips I make to purchase goods, in order to keep my family and my neighbors safe,” said Ackert, who owns Maple Craft Foods in his town. “I find it frustrating that I can purchase nearly everything I need to feed my family and to keep us sane, in one trip tio a grocery store except for wine.”

And Rep. Michael D’Agostino, co-chairman of the General Law Committee and Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, ranking member of the committee, said they believe that adding wine sales to supermarkets shouldn’t affect the business of package stores, but should allow for the overall expansion of the retail industry.

Russ Greenlaw, an executive with Adams Hometown Market, with 15 stores in the state, spoke in favor of the bill, stressing that it’s a matter of consumer convenience to be able to buy win at food markets. “The warning about the widespread loss of business haven’t proven to be true,” Greenlaw said, recalling similar warnings of closures when lawmakers approved Sunday sales in 2012.

The deadline for the committee to act on legislation is March 30.

Guiseppe Barranco/The Beaumont Enterprise Supermarkets in Connecticut would be able to sell wine under legislation that was the focus of a public hearing in the General Assembly on Thursday.

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo At left, Shannon Bassalik, of Greenwich, holds a box of purchases as she speaks to Randy Caravella, owner of Post Wines & Spirits in Greenwich, at the store in February 2013. Package store owners are concerned about a measure that would allow supermarkets to sell wine.