Some of the things this bill will allow for:

• Allow a liquor-store owner to have three liquor licenses. Up from the limit of one.
• Allow a retail liquor store to allocate 5% of their store to selling nonperishable food items.
• Limit beer and wine sales in grocery stores to 5% of the licensed premises. Of that 5%, at least 20% has to be devoted to “craft beers” and at least 20% reserved for “boutique wines”.

The flaw I see in this law is based on how they define “boutique wine” and “craft beer”. According to their definition in the bill, a “boutique wine” means “a vinous liquor produced by a small domestic producer that qualifies for a credit against federal excise tax.” A “craft beer” means “a malt liquor manufactured by a domestic brewer that qualifies for a reduced federal excise tax rate.”

It is all well and good that they want to push craft beer and boutique wines, but in doing so, they leave open the option for these new liquor-selling grocery stores to work with distributors who may not “push” the sales of our local, Colorado-produced products. The state General Assembly threw out phrases like, “Colorado is a state that is rich in its supply of home-grown and home-produced products” and this law will “improve the availability of and access to locally produced beers and wines”, but they did not put in the wording into the bill that these new license should allocate a certain percentage to locally produced items.

Another aspect to the liquor laws that I am not too familiar with is how wholesale distribution works. It would then seem logical to me, that the bill introduce wording that these grocery stores be able to work directly with the brewers and breweries in the state to facilitate the selling of craft beer and boutique wine. Eliminate the middle man sort of speak. I can see a distributor not wanting to work with local producers, whether it be a grudge or monetary reasons, and completely shutting the door for smaller beer and wine produces in access to the grocery stores. Imagine if a distributor had a falling out with New Belgium and didn’t allow for the sale of their products. I thought I read something a while back about a similar thing happening to Bell’s Brewery in Illinois.

Also what happened to making the Super Targets, and the Super Wal-Marts, and the Super K-Marts, and the Super Sears Grands ineligible for these licenses? That seems to have gotten swept under the rug. And who is going to enforce the square footage limitations on these grocery and liquor stores?

An interesting aspect of the bill that I may not be reading correctly is that it “allows the appropriate licensing authoity to deny a grocery store license when the authority determines that issuance of the license will cause an undue concentration of a similar class of licensed retail establishments and will require additional law enforcement resources.” Does this mean that the local license authority deny a grocery store a license due to a liquor store being right next door already? Interesting if they could do that. Or worse, the authority could deny the liquor store a renewal since the grocery store now has one?

While I am still in favor of allowing sales in grocery stores, I feel the law makers need to tidy up their bill a bit if they want to really help the availability of locally produced beer and wine. If not, here is the opening for the smaller liquor stores to specialize in locally-produced items that I wrote about in a previous post.

On a good note, it sounds like sales on Sunday might be a done deal. That being said, you never quite know what goes on behind closed doors in politics.

So, I finally said to myself enough is enough and started searching the web for some of the issues I find important hoping to find ways I can help do more. I came across a SixDegrees.org. Most of you know the “Six Degrees” concept where any one person is connected by six or fewer relationships. Yes, most famous is probably Kevin Bacon. Well, Kevin Bacon actually partnered with Network for Good to create a social networking site that plays on the “Six Degrees” concept in helping people find and support their favorite charities by using the logic that we’re all connected to each other and we need to help one another out. On the site, they have a cool feature called a Charity Badge that you can create for a website. You can even check out what other charity badges people are creating. So, I’ve created a charity badge to help support the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

The Colorado Environmental Coalition has been supporting Colorado citizens for over 40 years in mobilizing organizations and individuals to stand up for what makes Colorado great, its environment. Please check out their website and if you feel so compelled as I was in supporting their efforts please click on my charity badge on my website and give what you can. Again, even the smallest amount helps. If you are getting this feed through your RSS reader, you can also get to the badge by clicking here. I don’t get anything for your donations other than the satisfaction of knowing I might have helped someone else “do more”.

If the CEC isn’t your thing, but you still would like to help another cause, click the Network for Good link in the badge and it will take you to their website where there are several ways to search for the charity you would like to support.

Thanks and cheers!

If you weren’t already aware of the law, it basically says liquor stores have to be closed on Sunday and as a result, an adult cannot purchase “real” beer, spirits or wine on that day in this state. Unless, you’re in the dozen or so states that have the same law, I can almost hear you asking yourself, “Really?” In order to consume an adult beverage in this state on Sunday, you have to either go to a restaurant or bar, or really plan your drinking habits. While the first option isn’t necessarily that bad, the second is somewhat bothersome to me. Apparently, the liquor lobby in this state thinks that by allowing the liquor stores to stay closed on Sunday, this will allow them to save money by not having the additional day of business expenses, “rest” and enjoy a day off, or allow them to follow their religious convictions. All these reasons seem illogical to a country that believes that consumption is the only economical way to go.

My argument for the repeal of the law and also allowing grocery stores to be able to sell alcoholic beverages on Sunday is that the change will only drive up sales for local, craft brewers in this state. How so? Well, it’s often difficult to find local brews in this state at your local liquor store (I’m excluding the really large craft brewers). I want to enable the smaller guys to have a chance to sell if they want to. Naturally, by having the stores open for the extra day, the tendency is that you will have that extra chance to sell some of your product. That is to assume, that the store in question, actually has your product to begin with.

Here’s where I think allowing grocery stores to sell alcohol comes into play. Let’s be honest, it’s likely that a Wal-Mart, Target, or Safeway is not going to initially carry too many local craft brews anyway. They may carry a New Belgium or Breckenridge Brewery product, but not the smaller brewer’s stuff. Even if they do, the shopper who visits a Wal-Mart isn’t the craft brewers demographic anyway. Generally, it is the highly educated and above average income individuals who purchase craft brews and we both know who shops at a Wal-Mart.

So now that grocery establishments can sell alcohol, what are the liquor stores to do? The answer is simple. Specialize. They won’t be able to compete on price. They will eventually get destroyed by the warehouses. They’ll have to find the niche that isn’t getting served by the cheap suitcases of watered-down ale and stock local product or craft brews from out of state. Mom and Pop shops might actually get to buy direct from the brewers and not have to deal with regional resellers. It won’t be easy, but it can be done.

As you can see, for craft brewers it is a win-win proposition. Repeal the law and have an extra day for your product to sell. Allow grocery stores to sell alcohol, and liquor stores have to find a way to survive by selling to our niche market. Either way, it’s good for us who enjoy craft beer. Come election time, if you see this issue on the ballot, vote “YES” for more craft beer.