Consumers looking to buy beer and wine in grocery and other retail stores may have to wait a little longer.
What is practically a perennial effort to let other retailers sell some alcoholic beverages appears destined to stall again, with two key Senate Democrats saying a Senate bill is not poised to move forward, and a House version hitting a brick wall of concerns about small business owners Wednesday.
“I don’t foresee us this year taking on this issue in a significant way,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told reporters Tuesday. “I do think probably in the next term, we’re going to have to figure out some sort of compromise here.”
He said he does not see that compromise emerging in the remaining six weeks of this session, but that “in the next term, there’s probably a broader conversation about how to do this as fairly as possible, because we do know that it is that convenience is what Marylanders want.”
Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, called Ferguson’s comments “unfortunate.”
“We have independent studies stating that $75 million in new revenue would come to Maryland. This is not a new tax. This is not a new cut. This is a decision that benefits communities. It provides jobs. Neighborhood Stabilization retains existing stores and attracts new ones.”
The retailers association is a member of the Consumer Freedom Coalition, which is backing the push to expand beer and wine sales and, as part of that effort, targeted Ferguson in a mail campaign. The coalition also commissioned a University of Baltimore study looking at the potential effects of expanded sales in Maryland.
Supporters, undaunted, gathered in Annapolis Wednesday to push for passage of House Bill 1303, which was being heard by the House Economic Matters Committee, and Senate Bill 75, which was heard last month. The bills are similar, but not identical.
Both bills would allow grocery stores and big box wholesale chains to sell beer and wine. The House bill also includes convenience stores and pharmacies, if they meet minimum square footage requirements.
“People deserve to have the choice to purchase things where they please,” said Del. Marlon Amprey (D-Baltimore City), sponsor of the House bill.
Neither bill creates new licenses, but would let current license holders could sell their licenses.
Amprey said his proposal would not “eliminate or devalue” existing licenses. “We’re not talking about creating more competition. We’re literally just changing the name on the door,” he said.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Beltimore City), bill appears destined to remain in committee. A similar bill last year was withdrawn before the Senate Finance Committee could vote it down.
Sen. Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel), chair of the Finance Committee, said last fall a return of the bill would likely meet a similar fate this year. She said Friday she does not believe the committee has changed its position.
“I still think there’s a great deal of concern about these small, family-owned businesses, and we’ve all heard from them. I really think that it’s a tough issue to weigh,” Beidle said Friday. “Convenience for constituents is important, but so is small business, and to be business friendly.”
Maryland is one of four states, with Delaware, Alaska and Rhode Island, that do not allow grocery stores or other retailers to sell beer, wine or liquor.
Restrictions in Maryland date back about 50 years. Some stores at the time were selling alcohol, including distilled spirits. Today, about 30 nontraditional stores sell alcohol. The list of grandfathered license holders include groceries, convenience stores and pharmacies. Some continue to sell liquor, as well.
Expanded sales polls well in Maryland: In surveys paid for by supporters, four in five people say they want beer and wine in grocery stores. The convenience of one-stop shopping drives that support.
The bills face opposition from a powerful alliance of alcohol wholesalers, distributors and retailers.
Like Beidle, many lawmakers worry about the fate of small-business owners.
“We’re talking about pulling the rug out from under small, established businesses who have built their businesses,” said Del. April Rose (R-Carroll), during Wednesday’s Economic Matters Committee hearing. “A lot of these are family-owned businesses, and you’re changing the rules, and you’re making things much more difficult for them.”
Many point to the experience in Colorado, which allowed groceries nine years ago to sell beer, wine and spirits. To do so, the grocery had to buy existing licenses from two nearby stores.
By 2023, some stores reported drops in sales of up to 15% and a 33% reduction in employees. Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a bill last April ending the practice of groceries buying out smaller stores to enter the market.
Supporters in Maryland insist that allowing groceries and other stores to sell alcohol will not run out small businesses.
The University of Baltimore study, funded by bill supporters, noted the sales and job losses in Colorado, but said that the impact in Maryland “may be overstated and based on the experience of other states these businesses can be expected to recover.”
Jack Milani, owner of Monaghan’s Pub in western Baltimore County and legislative co-chair of the Maryland Licensed Beverage Association, said he had not seen the study but was skeptical.
“I’m a realist. I mean, I have folks in other states tell me completely opposite things,” Milani said, speaking of Colorado. “So, you know, we’re going to deal with the people that I know and trust, because I think anybody can have a study done. Depending on how you do it, you get different results.”
Lawmakers including Beidle, who retires at the end of the term, are also unconvinced.
“It’s not just the small businesses that you’re going to hurt. It’s going to be the local breweries and the local wineries and, you know, the things that you’re just not going to walk into a grocery store and buy,” she said. “And so we’re hurting those businesses too, if we pass this bill, because they’ll probably stop manufacturing if they aren’t selling well.”
The bill, even if it dies again this year, is likely to return in the next term.
“We’ll keep working on it,” Beidle said. “I don’t think it’s going to go away.”
Locklair said her group is prepared to continue pushing for expansion.
“The conversation is not going to go away. The numbers of support in Maryland keep going up every single year,” she said.
“People want better prices. They want convenience. They want grocery stores in their communities and in many communities,” Locklair said. “Now they’re realizing, wow, this might be an opportunity for us to attract a store when maybe we never have access to one. So it’s to push the goal post, and we’re not going to stop it.”