OKC Chamber now supporting grocery store wine/beer sales

[foodiefan]

. . . the "super committee" had a chance to addess the issue and blew it. At least this seems like a start. . .

[ThomPaine]

I agree with Sid's comments. Having the ability to pair wine with food is a great plus (for both food sales and wine sales). All of our upscale grocers would benefit tremendously, and if there is ever to be a grocery store downtown, think how convenient it would be for the residents. As for liquor sales, in all honesty, liquor purchases (at least for me) are usually planned. If you see a great buy on a certain food, and the grocery store has a display of wine with that food, you can grab it as an impulse item.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

[NoOkie]

I agree with Sid's comments. Having the ability to pair wine with food is a great plus (for both food sales and wine sales). All of our upscale grocers would benefit tremendously, and if there is ever to be a grocery store downtown, think how convenient it would be for the residents. As for liquor sales, in all honesty, liquor purchases (at least for me) are usually planned. If you see a great buy on a certain food, and the grocery store has a display of wine with that food, you can grab it as an impulse item.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

My favorite liquor store in Kansas City had a pretty good cheese and cured meats cooler. Not Forward Foods/Whole Paychecks level, but a nice selection of cheeses and meats with some fancy crackers near by. They had little cards next to each with pairing suggestions for wine and beer. That setup resulted in the impulse buy of more than a few extra bottles of wine and cheese to go with it.

[NickFiggins]

It will be interesting to see what QuikTrip does, they are quite powerful in state politics and seem to be a little miffed by the 6 store restriction. However if this successfully gets on the ballot it could really start the ball rolling towards wide scale sales in grocery stores. If you think about the six store limit it would allow Homeland to have 6 stores in OKC metro, Reasors 6 in Tulsa metro, plus Whole Foods could have wine in all 3 Oklahoma stores.

The net result is that some liquor stores with bad service and selection will shrivel up and die, as a result when a petition for strong beer sales in grocery/c-stores comes around they will have less money to resist with.

While this might not be a great solution its a start. Also lets be honest the 6 store restriction would allow 10-15 stores in each metro, so that is a much bigger impact. The major issue is grocery stores provide a broader social benefit as in enhance a community, liquor stores don't, why not allow a high margin item help provide a broader social benefit.

[Larry OKC]

Does anyone know/explain the reasoning behind the petition only allowing it in the 15 largest counties? Doesn't that go against the state constitution that forbids 'special laws"? Since it is a statewide vote aren't they going to run against folks in the other 62 counties voting against it since it won't apply to them (why should I vote for it when I won't benefit from it)???

[GaryOKC6]

100% Disagree. I can't stand the fact that in Oklahoma I have to go to a specialty shop to buy a drink for dinner. Just last night I went to Metropolitan Market. Bought chips and salsa for tomorrow nights game and a bottle of wine for my wife. At 10:30pm I would have been out of luck in OKC. You want me to wait until 9am because that is better for jobs? This isn't about big box making more money -- though they will. This is about removing laws that only prop up an unnecessary industry and remove restrictions that were purely religious in origin.

This is what is wrong with social engineering laws. They create industries where they are not needed and then once you try to clean up the mess, everyone is upset because jobs will be lost. Many of them should never have been created in the first place.

That said, there are good reasons for liquor stores to exist. Far better selection for example. Allowing more people to sell an item doesn't hurt small shops. Lack of density, branding, customer service, horribly designed neighborhoods, etc hurt small businesses.

Well said. I have spent time in other states that allow you buy wine in grocery stores and it works very well. I would much rather buy my wine in the grocery stores and not have to make a special trip somewhere else to buy a bottle of wine. I am hoping for it for it to happen here someday.

[Just the facts]

How about the State government just gets out of the way and lets the businesses and their customers decide.

[Soonerman]

How about the State government just gets out of the way and lets the businesses and their customers decide.

This

[kevinpate]

Does anyone know/explain the reasoning behind the petition only allowing it in the 15 largest counties? Doesn't that go against the state constitution that forbids 'special laws"? Since it is a statewide vote aren't they going to run against folks in the other 62 counties voting against it since it won't apply to them (why should I vote for it when I won't benefit from it)???

It minimizes the opposition. Try running the same concept as applicable in all 77 counties and it would likely go down in flames.

You'd have the drinking is sinful, always, crowd united with the I take a sip with dinner but hey, the kids might get more access crowd united with the Hey, I like Joe at the package store and this would put him outta business crowd united with the money will go to Wal-Mart and ol' Joe gives money to the local save a fountain drive, etc., etc.

Take this issue off most main streets and a whole lot less of those folks will get up in arms over what the city folk wanna do. There's a reason you still can't get a decent bourbon, neat, in a whole lot of places. They don't want it, and them what do, don't wanna publicly say they do.

[Questor]

Well I find the revisions to this potential state question a little disappointing. I realize why they did it... it's clear they put all these little things in about what county size this effects and number of stores and size of stores to placate the opposition. I was really hoping they would go further. But yes, as they probably reasoned, I would still vote for this.

[Bunty]

I'm all for it. How do I find out where to sign? On their web site?

[RadicalModerate]

I'm sure everyone realizes that even if this passes, the Liquor Distribution Cartel will figure out a way to get it overturned in court so its implementation can be delayed for another decade or so . . . Probably--this time--based upon something like "lower population counties being discriminated against/unequal protection under the laws" . . .

[Bunty]

How about the State government just gets out of the way and lets the businesses and their customers decide.

Because the Baptists and the liquor store owners who don't want to be bothered with opening on Sunday could team up and stop laws from passing to let liquor stores open on Sunday.

[NoOkie]

Because the Baptists and the liquor store owners who don't want to be bothered with opening on Sunday could team up and stop laws from passing to let liquor stores open on Sunday.

The Baptists(Or pick the denomination you want to pick on) sure, maybe. The liquor store owners? I doubt it. I think there are enough people who want to purchase on sundays, or who would purchase on sundays, to make it sensible from a profit perspective.

[jedicurt]

... and the liquor store owners who don't want to be bothered with opening on Sunday....

ummm just because the law allows them to be opened on sunday, doesn't mean that they have to be opened on sunday... my issue with the current law is that the state is regulating the days of operation of a private business (reason why i tell my parents that i am a true conservative and am able to support this, because i don't believe in the government regulating the hours of operations of a private business).... if they passed a law allowing them to be opened on sunday, i would surely hope that it would be a requirement

and so if a liquor store owner didn't want to be open on sunday, then they wouldn't have to be.

[kevinpate]

The Baptists(Or pick the denomination you want to pick on) sure, maybe. The liquor store owners? I doubt it. I think there are enough people who want to purchase on sundays, or who would purchase on sundays, to make it sensible from a profit perspective.

Perhaps, but presently those same folk purchase on one of the other six days of the week. Not sure an extra day worth of overhead is really going to attract a bevy of new customers who were tea-totaling protestors who refued to be buyers unless it could happen on Sunday. Sort of like those Nobody buy gas this Monday campaigns where folks go fill up on Sat. or Sunday or live life with reckless abandon and wait for Tuesday.

[NoOkie]

Perhaps, but presently those same folk purchase on one of the other six days of the week. Not sure an extra day worth of overhead is really going to attract a bevy of new customers who were tea-totaling protestors who refued to be buyers unless it could happen on Sunday. Sort of like those Nobody buy gas this Monday campaigns where folks go fill up on Sat. or Sunday or live life with reckless abandon and wait for Tuesday.

Convenience drives sales, why else would so many retails operate with extended hours?

[jedicurt]

Perhaps, but presently those same folk purchase on one of the other six days of the week. Not sure an extra day worth of overhead is really going to attract a bevy of new customers who were tea-totaling protestors who refued to be buyers unless it could happen on Sunday. Sort of like those Nobody buy gas this Monday campaigns where folks go fill up on Sat. or Sunday or live life with reckless abandon and wait for Tuesday.

They would not be required to be open on sundays. This allows the store owner to decide whether or not the business is open on that day rather than the state of oklahoma telling them what days they can be open. Will all liquor stores be open on sundays? no probably not... but if one wanted to, they could!

[Bunty]

Liquor stores would surely already be free to open on Sunday, if enough owners wanted them to be open. The same goes with car dealers. I think not being free to open on Sunday, if desired, is pretty silly and anti freedom, but plenty of Oklahomans sure seem to respect it highly as a time honored cultural tradition.

[OKCTalker]

I’m all for a level playing field, and this is a baby step towards that. I’d rather see a county option that would lift restrictions on grocer and existing liquor stores so that the former could sell beer, wine & booze, and the latter could sell things in addition to beer, wine & booze. There will be a shake-out to be certain, and weaker liquor stores will go by the wayside, but consumers will benefit immediately by having sources to purchase alcohol, and benefit in the long run by having more grocers interested in entering this market.

The gasoline tank remediation issue comes to mind. That was more than a decade ago when gas stations had to remove their old gas tanks, test the soil, remediate as necessary, and then replace the tanks. The smaller operators claimed that this would put them out of business due to the high cost, and in some cases that was true – the most marginal and poorly-performing operators are now gone. But their tanks have been replaced (or disposed of), the soil has been cleaned, and the real estate has changed hands and is now serving a greater economic good.

So too here, I hope.

[jedicurt]

Liquor stores would surely already be free to open on Sunday, if enough owners wanted them to be open. The same goes with car dealers. I think not being free to open on Sunday, if desired, is pretty silly and anti freedom, but plenty of Oklahomans sure seem to respect it highly as a time honored cultural tradition.

actually no... the current law within the Oklahoma Constitution requires them to be closed on sunday... and to change this requires a vote of the people to do so. so even if all the Liquor store owners wanted to be open on sunday's, they couldn't unless they could get it even put on a state wide ballot for it to be voted on.

[Bunty]

actually no... the current law within the Oklahoma Constitution requires them to be closed on sunday... and to change this requires a vote of the people to do so. so even if all the Liquor store owners wanted to be open on sunday's, they couldn't unless they could get it even put on a state wide ballot for it to be voted on.

So if the liquor store owners wanted to open badly enough on Sunday, then they should have been organized enough by now to get people to vote on letting them open on Sunday.

[jedicurt]

So if the liquor store owners wanted to open badly enough on Sunday, then they should have been organized enough by now to get people to vote on letting them open on Sunday.

do you realize how difficult it is to get something on the ballot??? it took 6 tries to get the issue on the ballot to be open on election day solely so that campaign parties could buy alcohol.... and that is the congressmen themselves wanting to get it on the ballot for their own campaign parties.... and then it still passed by just a narrow margin

[jedicurt]

So if the liquor store owners wanted to open badly enough on Sunday, then they should have been organized enough by now to get people to vote on letting them open on Sunday.

by your logic... if the grocery stores wanted wine badly enough then they should have been organized enough by now to get people to vote on it rather than having to have the chamber of OKC to have to help them... but they do want it badly, and are a much larger group than the liquor store owners, and still can't get it done... hence why this is even being talked about

[GaryOKC6]

by your logic... if the grocery stores wanted wine badly enough then they should have been organized enough by now to get people to vote on it rather than having to have the chamber of OKC to have to help them... but they do want it badly, and are a much larger group than the liquor store owners, and still can't get it done... hence why this is even being talked about

That is not actually correct. I was at a meeting this week and Carl Edwards, Chairman of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber was the speaker. He was asked about the Chambers position on this and was very clear that the Chamber has not taken any position on this issue at all. Their board is going to vote on it at a future meeting. He has a lot of integrity and I do not doubt anthing that he says. Also 2 of the largest liquor distributors sit on the board of the Chamber.