Signs created by “The New York State of Wine” coalition advocating for the sale of wine in grocery stores are featured in grocery stores statewide. Photo courtesy Tops Friendly Market
BY NICHOLAS GORDON | ng639@georgetown.edu
Over a dozen grocery store owners have banded together to form the “New York State of Wine” coalition in an effort to help pass new legislation legalizing the sale of wine in grocery stores in the state of New York. And the liquor stores—the grocery stores’ long-running adversaries on the issue—are still pushing back. The standoff stems from a prohibition-era restriction that has remained in place through the years, making New York one of ten states that does not permit the sale of wine in grocery stores. Now, new legislation is pending for a change in the law favoring the grocers.
“The ‘New York State of Wine’ coalition was set up because we think that selling wine in New York’s grocery stores would be a win-win for everybody in the industry,” said Nelson Eusebio, the Director of Government Affairs for the National Supermarket Association (NSA), which represents over 500 supermarkets in New York City. “It would create more jobs for the vineyards and wineries, and increase the need for more delivery drivers and warehouse workers to handle packing, storage, and shipments. And it would add tax dollars on wine to the coffers of New York.”
Owing to New York’s abundance of wineries and vineyards, Eusebio said that the state is well-suited to expand its wine-selling capacity. “New York is a state that grows grapes and produces wines on a large scale,” Eusebio said. “It would be a big boon for a lot of wineries in the Finger Lakes and East End (of Long Island) regions if grocery stores get wine on their shelves.”
Boasting over 450 wineries, New York is the third largest wine-producing state in the country. The wine and grape business contributes nearly 80,000 jobs, and generates an annual economic impact of over $6 billion from grape growing and wine sales, according to research done by John Dunham & Associates in 2023, commissioned by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.
New York state Sen. Liz Krueger has resubmitted proposed legislation to grant grocers wine-selling licenses that would require them to pay an annual fee based on total wine sales, exempting New York wines from the total to boost the sales from the state’s vineyards. The bill would limit the licenses for wine sales to full-service grocery stores with a minimum of 65% sales on food and at least 5,000 square feet of retail space.
Eusebio said that the majority of the grocery stores he represents are independently-owned by first and second generation immigrant families who work on the premises with their relatives to keep their business going.
“We sympathize with the liquor stores and we understand them because we’re in a similar position with many small business owners, but I don’t feel the liquor stores would be hurt by the new legislation,” Eusebio said.
Wine on display at Greenpoint Wine & Liquor in Brooklyn. Photo by Adrian Serowik
Adrian Serowik, manager of Greenpoint Wine & Liquor in Brooklyn, said that a large volume of his store’s sales come from wine, due to the fact that liquor stores are able to work with a network of different wine distributors and suppliers, whereas most of his friends in the liquor store business work with the same carriers for spirit sales.
“Right now our customers count on us selling wine, and we’re making money from wine sales,” Serowik said. “If New York passes this legislation, people will choose to go to supermarkets for their wine and we’ll lose a lot of business. It’s going to kill the liquor stores as small business owners.”
An estimated 90 percent of the roughly 2200 wine and liquor stores currently operating in New York City are listed as single-owner businesses.
Over the last two decades, congressional bills supporting wine-selling in grocery stores have been met with continued pushback from New York’s wine and spirits retailers, which has effectively nullified the bills, leaving the current law intact.
While the new bill has garnered bipartisan support, some lawmakers and critics, side with the small liquor stores, citing the opening of the mega-store Total Wine Spirits & More in Westbury in 2017, which they claim has hurt the business of small liquor and wine retailers.
The New York State Liquor Authority (SLA), which regulates the sale of alcohol in the state, has denied additional retail license applications by Total Wine to open new stores in New York, citing an existing saturation of wine and spirits stores.
SLA declined to comment for this article on the pending legislation for selling wine in grocery stores.
Recent polling by Siena College shows that over 75% of New York voters strongly support allowing grocery stores to sell wine.
“When people go grocery shopping they want more purchasing power to explore different wines and buy wine that matches their recipes and what they’re eating,” Eusebio said. “We’re in the business of selling food, and wine and food are a marriage made in heaven.”
