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Should Grocery Stores Sell Whiskey?

April 7th, 2014 by flanews

You can grab a beer at the grocery store but have to go elsewhere for a bottle of liquor. Some lawmakers are saying that needs to change.

It’s not on the level of Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall.

But a proposed repealer law looks to break down walls that the state mandates groceries to have between their stores and liquor stores.

“So if you walk into Publix, you can get wine and beer but then you gotta walk outside and go into a separate entrance for liquor,” said Rep. Greg Steube (R-Sarasota). “To me it just doesn’t make sense, it’s harder on consumers that have to go through two lines.”

Representative Greg Steube’s proposal would eliminate the separate entrance requirement currently on the books.  Former Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Director John Harris says there’s no longer any need to separate the apple schnapps from the apple sauce.

“A law that passed immediately after prohibition, it’s been in effect for about 100 years,” said Harris now with Floridians For Fair Business Practices. “It probably was a very good law when it was made based on the model of the liquor stores. That’s changed today.”

With more than half of legislative session already gone, the bills have yet to be placed on an agenda for any committee.

Florida’s Independent Spirit Association has spoken out against the proposal. The group says that allowing liquor sales in grocery stores or Walmart increases access to minors.  Steube shrugs off the claim.

“They could walk in the liquor store right now but they still have to get carded and ID’d in order to purchase alcohol,” said Steube. “So access to minors, in my opinion, isn’t going to change at all.”

ABC Liquors has come out in opposition against the bill. Walmart is for it, saying the business model operates just fine in the other states that allow it.

Supporters say that change looks unlikely this year, but they’re hoping for a possible last minute push to get the law repealed.

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