aolson, Wed, February 18th, 2009
Which helps explain why Gov. Paterson’s proposed legislation that would allow grocery, drug and convenience stores to carry wine had failed to hit home for me. But it had not gone unnoticed by local business owners or the media. When Assemblyman Will Barclay was approached by local liquor store owners at Camillus Town Hall, I had a story to write.
I pursued the local implications of the issue and ran an article in last week’s Advocate, and although the story interested me personally I reserved my judgment on the issue for the sake of objective reporting.
But, that was last week.
Did you know there are two Wegmans grocery stores less than 3.5 miles away of one another in the Fairmount area? For these neighboring stores to be financially successful in spite of their close proximity says they do quite a bit of business.
Wegmans is like a local celebrity. We hear about it all the time, it’s “the” place to take out-of-towners, as though the entire Syracuse area literally has nothing to offer residents or visitors aside from a collection of grocery stores.
The problem is, Wegmans isn’t local.
The chain - yes, it is a chain - may have been founded somewhat locally, if you consider Rochester to be so, but now boasts 71 locations throughout 5 states on the East Coast. The company itself is annually recognized by Forbes as one of the largest private companies in the country.
What’s so local about that?
Not that I have it out for Wegmans, because I like it, too. But the more I learn about how Wegmans is leading this most recent surge to stock wine in grocery stores, the less I think of the name as a local-friendly, “family business done good,” and the more I see it as Big Business.
I grew up in a small town not unlike Camillus or Elbridge. There was one liquor store in town and one grocery store, both situated in the same plaza. More than once since I’ve been “of age,” I’ve stopped at the grocery store to pick up something, then dashed across the parking lot to the liquor store for the perfect complement. In the grocery store, I was nameless, sometimes wandering through the same aisles again and again until I found the one can of stewed tomatoes I was looking for - no one to ask for help, no one offering.
Once I crossed the threshold into the tiny liquor store, not only did I know I was being watched, but whoever was behind the counter could probably tell you whose daughter I was, what I had purchased my last trip into the shop and whether I was going to pay with cash or a card.
Am I romanticizing this scenario a bit? Maybe, not intentionally. But I can walk into Vinomania, a specialty wine store in downtown Syracuse, and know that Gary Decker will help me, wine illiterate and tough to please, find a bottle of wine I’ll enjoy. What kind of service do they offer at grocery stores? Pointing out the three kinds of tortilla chips on the shelf and telling you to pick one?
Each side in this battle - grocery stores vs. liquor stores - has their own facts and figures that support their argument. One camp says underage drinking will go up, the other side says it won’t. The Governor says the state will make much-needed revenue off the move, liquor stores say a one-time licensing fee will be a quick fix, and the act would put so many stores out of business that the relatively small profit would be far outweighed by the jobs lost.
Speaking with a VP for the Wegmans company, he argued that it’s high time liquor stores have to compete with other businesses and the monopoly they have on wine must be broken - but, he didn’t care so much about liquor.
(Guess why? A lower excise tax on wine allows retailers to mark up prices and reap a hefty profit - liquor sales provide much less revenue.)
But what strikes me as most absurd is that it is coming back to the forefront in the midst of one of the country’s worst economic crises since The Great Depression. Perhaps the single most recession-proof business one can go into would be selling food - providing people with one of the most basic necessities. While gourmet, luxury dining establishments and markets, and even fast food joints, may lose out as people cinch their belts and cheapen their diets, grocery stores by nature are poised to pull through this calamity with heads held high. How could they not? The government provides the needy with food stamps, not New Shirt Stamps, or Round of Golf stamps.
Because if there’s one thing we all just have to find a way to do until this nightmare passes, it’s feeding ourselves and our families. God bless you if your family owns a chain of grocery stores, congratulations; if you’re the fifth generation to inherit your family liquor store, God help you.
