ALEXANDRIA, Va.—In Connecticut, grocers are pushing to be allowed to sell wine and are in turn encountering fierce opposition from so-called package stores. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is just one aspect of a nationwide move “to expand access to booze by changing alcohol regulations—some of which date to the end of Prohibition—that were suspended in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Connecticut grocers conducted a poll in 2022 finding that 84% of people support changing the law.
The Journal reports that “Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill this year that would allow alcohol sales on Sunday, and North Carolina legislators introduced a measure that would allow happy-hour drink specials.”
On March 1, Colorado grocers and c-stores will start selling wine. In November, Proposition 125 passed with 50.6% of the vote, allowing the change.
Patrick Maroney, former director of Colorado’s Liquor Enforcement Division, told the Journal that many states changed their laws in the past decade to encourage the growth of craft beverages, but old restrictions are getting a new look since the pandemic. The Journal reports that in each of the past two years, around 1,700 state bills dealing with alcohol sales and production were introduced, and 425 were enacted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
According to the NACS State of the Industry (SOI) Report of 2021 Data, 68.1% of c-stores sell wine. Wine sales boomed in 2020 as bars and restaurants were closed and then dipped in 2021. Margins on wine were 31.99% in 2021.
Table wine remains the largest subcategory for wine, accounting for 39.7% of category sales in 2021, according to SOI data. “Other wine,” which includes sangria and new wine innovation, is next at 25.8%. Wine-based coolers and cocktails, including seltzers, meanwhile, are blurring subcategory lines and now represent 17.7% of wine sales in c-stores.
Read more about wine sales and merchandising in convenience stores in “Grape Expectations” in the November 2022 issue of NACS Magazine.