NY liquor stores prepare for battle with supermarkets over non-alcoholic booze
NY Post
New York wine and liquor stores are struggling as their customers dry out from the boozy days of the pandemic — and a pair of state lawmakers has concocted a potentially controversial remedy for the hangover.
At the start of the year, New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey quietly introduced a bill to allow wine and liquor stores and their distributors to sell “non-alcoholic versions of alcoholic beverages” — a comparatively small but fast-growing niche that some liquor store owners say could help prop up stalled sales.
While US sales of alcoholic beverages edged 0.8% higher to $105 billion during the past 12 months, sales of non-alcoholic booze soared 34% to $620.4 million during the same timeframe, according to NielsenIQ.
“It’s incredibly important to us to support our liquor stores,” Hinchey told The Post. “They are family owned, local small businesses that are on our main streets and this could be a new revenue stream for them.”
The Empire State is one of just 17 states that don’t allow wine and liquor stores to sell non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits. But it’s also one of just 10 states that don’t allow grocery stores to sell wine and liquor — a law that has been in place since the Prohibition era, and which New York liquor stores have defended vigorously.
That’s despite lobbying by supermarkets, which are only allowed to sell beer in New York. Last year, grocers pushed a bill that failed to advance.
