NY considers grocery sales of wine

[Rail Paul]

The Albany (NY) Times-Union has a story today about a proposal to permit grocery stores to sell wine in New York State. Currently, wine may be sold only in wine and liquor stores. The Den of Thieves is expected to consider the proposal later this year.

Unlike the recent controversy concerning direct shipments of wine into New York, the wholesalers favor the proposed change, while the wine stores oppose it. Grocery stores, not surprisingly, favor the change. A claim that tax revenues would increase is also disputed.

Proponents of change point to the relatively low number of wine stores (1 for every 5,400 New Yorkers) compared to California (1 for every 860) and Washington State (1 for every 900).

Articles in the Times-Union tend to disappear quickly.

Times-Union

[Ron Johnson]

They had this when I lived in St. Louis. At first I thought it was really cool until I realized that the grocery stores mainly sold crap.

Now, with stores like Whole Foods, there are some good bottles available. Problem is that most grocery stores dont want to have to deal with managing an inventory of wine, so they just let the distributors tell them what to order.

[jeniac42]

You can buy wine in grocery stores here (Ohio). Most of them have terrible selections, but places like Giant Eagle and The Andersons seem to have a decent assortment of low- to mid-priced bottles. They also have someone assigned to work just in the wine area who can help you out a bit; kind of like a wine store, only... less so.

Of course, they (like many of the places I've been to around here) tend to stock a lot of California wines, a fair number of Australian wines, and very little French, German, or Italian.

[JAZ]

Damn, you know, you live in California long enough, and you forget that you can't buy wine and liquor in every little corner store in other states. Even my butcher shop has a small wine selection. Granted, I'm very used to this, but it doesn't seem to me that the ability of big stores to sell wine has lessened the number of dedicated wine stores. Within a 20 minute walk of my apartment, for example, are the afore-mentioned butcher shop, a mostly organic/healthy market that has a pretty decent wine selection, four "convenience" type corner markets that sell both wine and liquor, a Safeway (crappy selection, due to its location; some Safeways here have great wine selections), a Bell Market with a pretty good selection, four dedicated wine and spirits stores, and a Beverages and More (actually more than a 20 minute walk; more like a 15 minute bus ride for that one).

[Bux]

Every supermarket in France sells wine, but there are wine shops. Come to think of it I've bought wine in discount stores in France. I suppose one can do that in California as well. The funny thing was that I was in a monoprix looking for Champagne to bring to a friend for New Year's Eve and the discount store prices weren't as good as those in NYC. I wished I had bought the bottle in NY and brought it over with me.

With shelf space at such a premium in Manhattan and the wine competition so fierce, I can't see the supermarkets offering very much. In rural and suburban areas, it may be another story.

[Beachfan]

In Kauaii, over the years, I've been able to buy Turley Zinfandel at the Longs drugs. Also available (but not to my liking) is Pahlmeyer and Kistler Chardonnay. Last couple of years, not as good though, just the Pahlmeyer.

[pixelchef]

Most supermarkets in Ontario (probably Canada, but I can't say for sure) sell wine as well. The selection is fine, but it usually consists of exclusively Ontario wineries. However, I happen to love our wineries, so I have no real complaints. If I want something from France or Italy, I'll make the trek to the liquor store.