The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced parties and gatherings, but apparently not alcohol sales. According to Connecticut state estimates as of Nov. 10, the annual tax revenue from alcohol sales this year is $73.2 million. That’s up from $68.9 million a year ago – a 4 million increase!
Package stores have benefited from this upsurge in booze sales, but bars and restaurants? Not so much, as many were closed or were forced to reduce their hours.
But now liquor store owners are concerned about a new bill proposal that might negatively impact their sales.
The new liquor bill would allow the sale of:
- wine in grocery stores
- beer in big-box stores like Walmart and Target
- wine as part of a restaurant takeout order
“People are trying to destroy our business,” said Stephen Downes, who operates Connecticut Beverage Mart on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington. “There’s all these things they’re attacking us on.”
As the legislature prepared for a public hearing on an omnibus liquor bill last Thursday on the various proposals, Downes and other package store owners say the state’s liquor landscape should remain just as it is.
“I think Connecticut’s system actually works pretty well,” he said. “I think there’s plenty of convenience. There’s 1,200 stores. You can get liquor from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. I don’t see a big issue. There’s always somebody open somewhere, especially in the cities. It doesn’t seem like any problem.”
But Rep. Michael D’Agostino, an attorney who co-chairs the legislative committee that oversees liquor, said package stores are simply afraid of competition after having seen increased sales during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our job as representatives is to think broadly about what is best for consumers, not just particular segments of the marketplace‚” said D’Agostino, (D-Hamden). “You have particular interests that are trying to protect themselves, in my view, at the expense of Connecticut consumers and the overall marketplace. ... From the package stores’ perspective, they don’t want the competition. I understand that.”
A crucial point, D’Agostino said, is that Connecticut still has a minimum bottle-pricing law that protects package stores.
D’Agostino said the bill will be revised to say that supermarkets must carry wines by small winemakers who generate, for example, fewer than 100,000 gallons per year. A bill that supermarkets must carry Connecticut wines would be immediately challenged in court by winemakers in California, Chile or across the world, officials say.
“Quite frankly, there’s not any piece of competition that they like and at the end of the day, at some point, it starts to just become greedy, and you can quote me on that,” D’Agostino said of the package stores. “They’ve done very well during the pandemic. To just want to hoard all of the profits for themselves is not very consumer friendly. ... Our job as legislators is to think a bit more broadly about the overall landscape, and that’s what I hope our folks will do.”
Market forces have already had an impact on Connecticut’s package stores even without further changes to the law. Faced with about $70,000 in property taxes per year for a 13,000-square-foot store, Downes, president of the Connecticut Package Stores Association, said he closed his New Britain location on Jan. 1 in the face of nearby competition from Total Wine, the state’s biggest wine seller, and Costco, which operates a package store under a separate permit with a separate entrance.
Rep. David Rutigliano, a Trumbull Republican who operates seven restaurants, said allowing eateries to continue to sell alcohol with takeout meals is important to a struggling industry. It is currently permitted only under Gov. Lamont’s emergency COVID-19 order. The bill, however, would essentially extend the order for three years, and it could be extended again in the future by the legislature.
“Listen, I’m in the restaurant business. We have not sold a lot of booze to go,” Rutigliano said in an interview. “All this was designed to just keep these small businesses afloat until things get truly back to normal. ... Restaurants have been severely restricted for about a year. We’ve had hundreds of failures in the state of Connecticut, and we’re trying to do a couple of things to help them out while everybody recovers. We’re all in this storm together."
