Wine and liquor stores in New York are struggling as customers become thirsty during the pandemic’s binge-drinking days. And two state legislators have come up with a potentially controversial hangover cure.
Earlier this year, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey quietly introduced a bill that would allow wine and liquor stores and their distributors to sell “non-alcoholic versions of alcoholic beverages.” Store owners say it has the potential to support stagnant sales.
Over the past 12 months, U.S. alcoholic beverage sales rose 0.8% to $105 billion, while non-alcoholic beverage sales rose 34% over the same period to $620.4 million, according to Nielsen IQ. Ta.
“Supporting liquor stores is very important to us,” Hinchey told the Post. “They are a local, family-owned small business on our Main Street, and this could be another source of income for them.”
The Empire State is one of only 17 states that do not allow the sale of nonalcoholic beer, wine, or spirits in wine and liquor stores. However, the state is also one of only 10 states that do not allow the sale of wine or alcoholic beverages in grocery stores. This law has been in place since Prohibition, and New York liquor stores have vigorously defended it.
That’s despite lobbying by supermarkets, which are only allowed to sell the beer in New York. Grocery stores pushed for a bill last year, but it did not move forward.
So, according to officials, Hinchey’s bill (which also includes a companion bill from state Rep. Al Starpe) would make food and beverage products, which are currently the only legal sellers of non-alcoholic wines, spirits and mocktails, more expensive. It is certain that the move will face fierce opposition from retail and convenience stores. There are also some specialty stores that only sell non-alcoholic drinks.
So far, Hinchey said, there has been no negative feedback or opposition to the proposal.
“There hasn’t been much movement yet,” she says. “New bill.”
But Nelson Eusebio, government relations director for the National Supermarket Association, which represents 600 independent stores in the city, said he was unaware of the bill until contacted by a Post reporter and expressed skepticism. He added.
“If you can sell wine, it’s fair trade,” Eusebio said. “If they don’t allow us to buy wine, we will block their charges. Do I even need to give him potato chips?”
Liquor store owners claim their stores are the natural destination for non-alcoholic beverages.
“People don’t go into a grocery store looking for gin,” said Michael Colella, a Brooklyn liquor store owner and executive director of the Metropolitan Package Store Association.
Ed Carino, co-owner of Proof No More, a three-year-old non-alcoholic liquor retailer and wholesaler, agrees: “Consumers don’t know to look for non-alcoholic rum in the supermarket.” It pointed out.
The uproar is taking shape after the liquor maker recently revealed disappointing U.S. sales. “After two years of double-digit organic net sales growth, the operating environment remains challenging,” Jack Daniel’s distiller Brown-Forman said in March. The company warned that it expects sales to be “flat” this year.
Diageo, owner of Tanqueray, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff, said its North American sales fell 2% in the six months to December. Diageo executives said on an earnings call that consumers are “increasingly conscious about their health” and “are spending less on discretionary spending.”
In New York, retailers say sales at liquor stores are even worse. Member of the Albany-based Metropolitan Package Store Association. 3,500 liquor stores say their revenue is down at least 10%, and many are seeing even steeper declines.
“2023 has been a difficult year for us,” Daniel Posner, owner of Grape the Wine Company in White Plains, told the Post. “Sales for most retailers fell 15% to 35%.”
“Consumers aren’t buying as much alcohol for home consumption,” said Kaleigh Theriault, director of beverage alcohol thought leadership at NielsonIQ.
A Gallup poll last year found that young consumers are far less dependent on alcohol than previous generations. The number of drinkers among adults under 35 has fallen to 62%, down from 72% a decade ago.
Experts say demand for non-alcoholic wines, spirits and mocktails is exploding as well, a trend coinciding with increased marijuana use and a new focus on marijuana. health and wellness.
“There is an increasing number of reports about the harms of alcohol.” [while at the same time] “Cannabis has been heavily touted as replacing drinking and being healthier than alcohol,” said Erica Ducey, founder and podcast host of The Business of Drinks.
“I think the legalization of marijuana is taking away business,” Colella added. “And Ozempic is a problem for us because people aren’t drinking while taking those drugs.”
Meanwhile, specialty retailers like Spirited Away, which opened its first non-alcoholic store in the Big Apple in 2019, are experiencing “steady growth,” with Dry’s January 2024 set to be its best month ever. co-owner Alex Highsmith told the Post.
Spirited Away offers about 300 items, including a $13 Bogus Negroni, a $23 bottle of Spiritless KFC 74, and a $40-a-cup Monday Gin. There are about 30 similar stores nationwide, seven of which are in New York City.
Mr. Highsmith appealed to not only abstainers but also people who engage in “flex drinking,” the habit of switching between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, by saying that the option to quit drinking allows them to “last a little longer when they go out.” It is said that there is
When Carino first pitched it to local bars and retailers, many were skeptical. Carino said one restaurant and grocery store owner in the northern part of the state refused, saying, “We don’t get many convalescents or pregnant women in our market.”
Carino said the retailer is now a regular, as is Manhattan’s upscale restaurant Gramercy Tavern. The restaurant’s sommelier is said to be well-versed in mocktails.
Nevertheless, New York wine stores and their distributors acknowledge that food retailers pose a major hurdle in getting non-alcoholic drinks on shelves.
“The biggest opponent of this is going to be the grocery industry,” said David Waldenberg, president of the New York Fine Wine Wholesalers Alliance and president of BNP Distributing.
