Grocery stores launch new coalition to push for wine sales in supermarkets

A newly relaunched coalition of grocery stores and business groups want to bring wine to a supermarket near you. Looking to expand on last year’s successes in updating the state’s liquor laws, the New York State of Wine coalition is pushing to make 2025 the year that the state legalizes the sale of wine in grocery stores.

If you’ve been to almost any other state around the country, chances are you can pick up a bottle of wine while doing your regular grocery shopping. That’s because New York is currently one of just 10 states to prohibit the sale of wine at supermarkets, a law that’s a vestige of prohibition. Grocery stores have attempted without success to get the law changed for years, most recently in the last legislative session. But liquor stores in the state have lobbied hard against the proposal, and the state’s Alcohol and Beverage Control Law is notoriously difficult to amend.

But advocates for wine in grocery stores see a unique opportunity next year, since this year’s budget included some high-profile changes to the state’s liquor laws. Perhaps most notably, Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers approved a five-year extension allowing restaurants to continue offering customers to-go cocktails. “I do think there is more of an understanding, both within the governor's office and within the Legislature, that, in general, the ABC laws in New York State are completely antiquated,” said Paul Zuber, executive vice president of the Business Council of New York State, which is part of the coalition.

In addition to takeout cocktails, a policy that began during the pandemic, the state made other updates to its liquor laws this year. This year’s budget also permitted movie theaters to sell liquor and spirits, expanding on the wine and beer that they could already sell. Over the summer, Hochul signed a law permitting craft distilleries to ship certain alcoholic products, including cider and mead, directly to consumers. 

Nelson Eusebio, director of government affairs for the National Supermarket Association, also pointed to the 2021 legalization of recreational marijuana in the state as evidence of changing attitudes around once-prohibited products. “Why not wine? That’s more of a wholesome product,” Eusebio said. He added that New York is a wine producing state, yet local vineyards don’t benefit from sales that could be coming from state supermarkets. “If we sell wines in our supermarkets, we can more promote the New York state, locally grown wine,” Eusebio said. “This is a nice, positive cycle.”

The new New York State of Wine coalition so far has over a dozen members, mostly grocery stores and their associated interest groups. That includes large supermarket chains like Wegmans, ShopRite, Whole Foods and Stop & Shop. The coalition has also launched a website that includes an FAQ for members of the public to learn about the campaign and the new advocacy push. Top public relations shop BerlinRosen is running comms for the coalition. “I think for the first time in a very, very long time, we have a much larger, broader coalition of retailers that want to pursue this, and pursue the opportunities to allow them to sell wine and grocery stores,” Zuber said.

Tom O’Connor, vice president of government affairs at the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, said he welcomes the opportunity to debate the issue in the public sphere and to get input from consumers as lawmakers decide whether to pursue the change. The chamber is not part of the New York State of Wine Coalition and is neutral on wine in grocery stores, but O’Connor said that consumer perspective is necessary. “Whenever there's been these review commissions or task forces, it’s mainly those industries at the table – which isn’t a bad thing,” he said. “But I think it’s also important to have kind of like the consumer’s lens on that review.” O’Connor wants to see robust public engagement on the policy before potential action.

Polling shows that the prospect of wine in grocery stores is a popular one. Proponents point to a 2023 Siena College poll which found that 75% of New Yorkers favor allowing supermarkets to sell wine. That’s a stark increase from 13 years earlier, when a 2010 Siena poll found that only 58% of New Yorkers backed the sale of wine in grocery stores.

The prospect of wine sales in grocery stores has faced staunch opposition from liquor store owners, who assert that the change would direct sales away from small business owners who run local liquor stores and toward big-box supermarkets. Next year will be no different. “Once again, big business is trying to bulldoze the little guys and put us out of business,” said Michael Correra, executive director of the Metropolitan Package Store Association. He said that locally-owned liquor retailers are responsible for 50,000 jobs in New York, “yet our existence is under assault.”

Correra pointed to the experience of Colorado as an example of the potential negative impacts of the proposal. Recent reporting found that dozens of local liquor stores have closed since the state legalized the sale of wine in grocery stores in 2022 and even more are expected to close in the future.  “We will fight back in this upcoming legislative session against the predatory actions of these monied interests before it’s too late,” Correra said.

Other states that legalized wine sales in grocery stores have not seen the same effects as Colorado did. Zuber referenced a recent study out of Tennessee from the Food Industry Association, a trade association for food retailers including supermarkets, which concluded that since the state’s 2016 law legalizing wine sales in grocery stories did not have a significant negative impact on liquor stores. Eusebio added that anecdotal evidence suggests that liquor stores in Florida also continue to thrive, despite the state long allowing wine sales in supermarkets.

Liquor store owners do want to see changes to the state’s liquor law, though. Specifically, they want the Legislature to pass a law allowing them to sell zero-proof versions of alcoholic beverages. Right now, they’re prohibited from taking part in the growing market, while grocery stores can sell those products. Of course, supermarket groups have opposed attempts to allow liquor stores to cut into their zero-proof sales, just as liquor stores opposed attempts by grocery stores to sell wine. But Eusebio said there could “absolutely” be room for a compromise where the Legislature approves both proposals – permitting the sale of wine in grocery stores and the sale of zero-proof products at liquor retailers.