It’s a messy mishmash that doesn’t serve Maryland consumers well. The law was designed to protect the mom-and-pop beer and wine stores that dominate the retail landscape, but are beholden to large wholesalers under the national three-tier system established after Prohibition was repealed. . A handful of independent, quality-conscious retailers have collapsed to the fringes, especially in cities like Annapolis, Baltimore and Frederick – and, more recently, in Montgomery County. But Marylanders lag behind the rest of the country in their freedom to purchase alcoholic beverages.
“Ninety-eight percent of Americans can go to a grocery store and buy beer. Eighty-five percent can buy wine, ”says Adam Borden, of Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws, who has campaigned for chain store sales since 2012. MBBWL has helped change state laws there years ago to allow Maryland residents to buy wine directly from the cellars. The group released a new survey in July that found 67% of Maryland consumers in favor of allowing chain stores to sell alcoholic beverages.
“We are one of the last states to restrict the free market for alcohol sales,” says Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Association, the Maryland Association of Chain Drug Stores, the Tri-State Jewelers Association and the Maryland Food Industry Council. . “I can’t think of any other area of retail where we allow fiefdoms to control the market and we protect them. Do we want a free market or not? Consumers are doing it. “
Borden and Locklair cite similar reasons to hope that the Annapolis legislature, which has firmly resisted change, might be receptive to their calls in the 2021 session. About a third of lawmakers are new after the 2018 election and the management of both rooms has changed.
And last year, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Tennessee law with a key provision similar to Maryland’s, ruling that a state residency requirement to hold a liquor license violated the clause. trade of the Constitution. The lawsuit was brought by Total Wine & More, the Bethesda, Md. Based chain with more than 100 stores nationwide. (Total has two stores in Maryland, with different people on the licenses.)
The Maryland Retailers Association has launched a new website, mdalcoholchoice.com, to educate consumers and help them contact their lawmakers in Annapolis. Locklair said the group will soon release a survey showing broad support and a projection of what the state could make from the sale of alcohol licenses.
Borden estimated that the state would earn a windfall of around $ 200 million from the initial license sale and $ 50-70 million a year after that. The fees could be staggered, with convenience stores paying $ 35,000 for a license, a drugstore such as CVS or Walgreens $ 50,000, grocery stores $ 250,000, and club stores such as Costco or Sam’s Club $ 500,000, he said.
“We track about 2,000 stores in the state, and we estimate that about two-thirds would apply for a license in the first year,” Borden said, citing the experience of Tennessee and Colorado, which liberalized their laws on licenses in recent years. These states’ records also demonstrate that the beer and wine stores protected by the current law would likely not suffer or go bankrupt, he said.
Change will not come easily. The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, a national lobbying group, has not taken a position on the issue in Maryland, but wholesalers in the state appear to have an interest in the status quo. They are expected to sell to many more retailers and face price pressure from the purchasing power of department stores like Costco.
Perhaps more tellingly, the Maryland Retailers Association and the MBBWL don’t work together, despite pursuing the same goal and using almost identical arguments. Borden and Locklair didn’t want to tell me why, but it is obvious that there is mistrust between the two groups.
And the difficult multi-year effort to change direct shipping laws has demonstrated just how difficult it is to move Annapolis on issues related to the sale and distribution of alcohol. Tom Wark, head of the National Association of Wine Retailers, a group that advocates for the freedom of interstate shipping, said his group would stay away from the fight. But he added a caveat.
“When it comes to alcohol, politicians in your state are corrupt,” he said.
