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Ballot question would allow wine sales at groceries By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
If the voters of Massachusetts approve Ballot Question Number One, your local supermarket may be selling wine along with groceries.
Proponents of the initiative believe the increase in wine licenses would lower the cost of wine and bring the Commonwealth in line with 34 other states that allow grocery stores to sell wine.
Kim Hinden, the spokesperson for the Wine at Food Stores Initiative, said that recent polling has indicated that Massachusetts residents favor the question at a two-to-one ratio.
The new licenses would only be for wine. Beer and spirits would still be only available at the retailers currently selling them.
The Massachusetts Package Store Association, Inc. opposes the question. Frank Anzalotti, the industry group's executive director, told Reminder Publications that approval of the question would create a "public safety issue."
Anzalotti said that wine is a product that needs to be sold by licensed retailers who have the "privilege" of selling wine. He said that if the question passes, there would be a potential 2,800 new wine-at-food-store licenses created that would double the access to wine sales.
He said that studies have shown an increase in illegal sales in states that have approved such licenses. He sited a study in Hawaii that classified illegal sales by the type of store where they occurred. It showed that 78 percent of the grocery stores were in compliance, as compared to 48 percent of the convenience stores and 85 percent of the package stores.
Anzalotti admitted that loss of market share is also a consideration for his group's opposition, but that is not the first consideration.
Anzalotti said that gas station and convenience stores could also be approved, as they sell food. When told that Hinden said the license would only go to stores that have to carry meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fresh fruit and produce, baked goods and baking ingredients, canned goods and dessert items, Anzalotti said that "opinions [about which stores would get licenses] are varied and far apart."
He disputed whether or not the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) in Boston would have final approval on these new licenses. Hinden maintains that all of the control is on the local level and there is no appeal process to the ABCC for these new licenses, as there is for other license disputes.
Hinden said that package store owners are "throwing up smokescreens" to try to obscure the fact they control 85 percent of the wine sales in the state.
"It's nothing but greed," she said.
Hinden said that the Massachusetts Food Association has been attempting for 20 years to have such a license created through legislation; however, she said it was blocked by "the liquor lobby."
Supermarket chains have been blocked by current rules governing alcohol licenses that prohibit a business from owning more than three. Hinden said that less than 1,000 grocery store licenses would be created and that local licensing authorities would have complete control over the issuing of those licenses.
The following is the actual statute to be approved:
Chapter one hundred and thirty-eight of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting the following section:
Section 15B. An additional class of licenses allowing the sale of wine at food stores is hereby created. These licenses shall be known as 'wine-at-food-store licenses' and may be issued at the discretion of local licensing authorities following the procedures set forth in section fifteen A of this chapter. For purposes of this section "food store" shall mean a grocery store, shop, supermarket, warehouse-type seller, club, outlet, or other seller, which sells at retail food for consumption off the seller's premises either alone or in combination with grocery items or other nondurable items typically found in a grocery store, provided such items are sold to individuals for their own personal, family, or household use; and provided further, that such food store must carry fresh or processed meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fresh fruit and produce, baked goods and baking ingredients, canned goods and dessert items.
Local licensing authorities may issue wine-at-food-store licenses to individuals or business entities duly organized under the laws of the Commonwealth or any other state, provided the applicant is approved by the commission; and provided further that any individual applicant is twenty-one years of age or older and has not been convicted of a felony. No license holder may hold more than ten percent of the total number of wine-at-food-store licenses this section authorizes local authorities to issue throughout the commonwealth, but wine-at-food-store licenses shall not be considered in applying any limits on the number of licenses this chapter otherwise authorizes applicants to hold or local licensing authorities to issue. Irrespective of the number of other licenses issued under this chapter by a city or town's licensing authorities, the local licensing authorities in any city or town are authorized, in their discretion, to issue up to five wine-at-food-store licenses and, in any city or town with more than five thousand residents, to issue one additional such license for each additional population unit of five thousand or any fraction thereof residing in that city or town. Holders of such licenses may sell wine alone or in combination with any other item or items they offer for sale.
Except as expressly provided in this section, the provisions of law applicable to the issuance, renewal, suspension, and termination of licenses issued pursuant to section fifteen and the regulation of and operation by such license holders shall apply to wine-at-food-store licenses and license holders. The amount of any initial or renewal fee for such a license shall be determined by the local licensing authorities issuing or renewing that license.
For more information on this issue, log onto www.wineatfoodsatores.com.
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