By ALEX COSTELLO and ARIELLA MONTI
In addition to charging grocery stores franchising fees for the right to sell wine, the proposal would increase the excise tax on wine from 18.9 cents per gallon to 51 cents. The measure could produce $150 million in revenue for the state over the next three years, according to Paterson.
While the convenience of being able to buy wine in a grocery store might be attractive for consumers, it is a major concern for wine and liquor store owners, who contend that it could put them out of business. "Obviously, it's something that's upsetting me," said Richard Nunziata, owner of Beach Liquor on West Beech Street. "There will be business taken away from our store.
"They're going to lose a lot in sales tax because a lot of stores are going to close up," Nunziata added. "You're going to have higher unemployment because a lot of stores are going to close up."
Sales of wine, he explained, accounts for the majority of his business. "Any loss to our store - to any local liquor store - will be a loss that is felt," he said. Under New York state law, an individual can own only one liquor store, according to Nunziata, but there are no such limits on the ownership of supermarkets, delicatessens and convenience stores, potentially giving those stores buying power that an individual liquor store does not have.
"We're dead set against it," Mike Kaplan, owner of Sand Castle Fine Wines and Spirit on West Beech Street, said of Paterson's proposal. "They're going to put a lot of mom-and-pop stores out of business."
Kaplan said that wine comprises 55 to 60 percent of his sales and is more profitable than liquor. When he heard about the proposal, he put a petition by the register, which he said he plans to send to the governor in the hope that it will help change his mind. In one week Kaplan collected 100 signatures.
Store owners and community advocates also complain that allowing wine to hit grocery store shelves will make it more readily available to underage drinkers. "You're going to have too many young kids working in places where they're going to be chiefly responsible for ID-ing people," said Kaplan. As the law stands now, grocery store employees must be at least 16, while those who work in liquor stores must be 18.
"Those kids working in grocery stores ... how are they supposed to turn their friends down?" said Judi Vining, coordinator of the Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking. "Rather than making it more difficult for young people to get their hands on alcohol products, this makes it easier."
"People that work for me, we're over 30 years old," said Nunziata. "Whereas if you have a clerk who's underage to begin with, they may not know what to look for, or they may know the person who's looking to buy and have a peer-pressure situation they can't handle in the right way."
According to Bill Prowley, a spokesman for the New York State Liquor Authority, however, the number of sales to minors in supermarkets, which are allowed to sell beer, dropped by almost half from 2004 to 2008. In 2004, the authority recorded 973 sales to minors statewide. In 2008, there were 501.
"There's about 16,000 grocery stores," Prowley said. "So just by sheer number, we'd expect to see more. We don't want to see any sales to minors, but we are pleased with the progress that the stores have made."
For now, wine store owners are waiting to see if Paterson's proposal successfully makes it way through the state Assembly. Said Nunziata, noting that he has been in business at the same location for 25 years: "Everybody is looking to hold on to what they've got."
Comments about this story? AMonti@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
