Legislation that would allow grocery stores in wet counties to sell any brand of wine zipped through an Arkansas Senate committee on Thursday.
Under existing law, grocery stores can sell wines only from "small-farm wineries," those that produce 250,000 gallons or less a year, according to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday recommended Senate approval of the House-amended version of Senate Bill 284 by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs. Last month, the 35-member Senate voted 18-11 to approve the legislation.
Wednesday, the 100-member House voted 53-34 for the bill. The bill fell three votes short of the 51 required for approval Monday in a 48-34 House vote. If the Senate approves of the change, the next stop would be the governor's office.
The House-approved amendment would allow liquor stores to have "consumables and edible products that complement alcoholic beverages" and require the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency to promulgate rules to facilitate the sale of complementary products. The bill is supported by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kroger Co., and some liquor stores.
Danny Woods, owner of Lakeview Liquor store in Mountain Home, told the Senate committee that grocery stores "want part of our wine sales, but this legislation doesn't give us anything to survive on. We are getting a cracker, and we want a bone with meat on it."
Afterward, Hester said, "When we were first down here, it was one of their legitimate arguments that [they] can't sell crackers and nuts and things like that, and we thought that was a reasonable request, so we obliged them on it and now they are insulted by it."
Many liquor store owners oppose the legislation because they say it would harm their businesses. But some county-line liquor stores supported the bill after grocers promised they would not back elections in the next eight years seeking to add to the list of counties that allow alcohol sales. Forty of the state's 75 counties are "wet," according to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
Several representatives switched their votes from Monday to Wednesday. One was Rep. Charles Blake, D-Little Rock, who said the grocers also promised not to push until after 2025 for legislation to allow them to sell liquor in their stores.
Under SB284, a grocery store may apply to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for a grocery-store wine permit that would allow the store to purchase and sell wine for off-premises consumption at a single location.
Wine-inventory orders or purchases are required to be made by the store for delivery to a single permitted location. Under the bill, an order for an inventory of wine is barred from being combined with an order for another location in a way that would result in discounts.
The grocery-store wine permit fee under SB284 would range from $1,000 for a permitted building space of less than 35,001 square feet to $5,000 for permitted building space containing more than 75,000 square feet. The fees would be paid into the Arkansas Wine Grants Fund. Fifty percent of the deposited fees would be divided among wineries seeking grant payments, subject to certain limitations. The other 50 percent go toward operating and staffing a wine tourism facility and office space for the Arkansas Wine Producers Council in Franklin County.
A Section on 03/03/2017