Our nude push on a debate that's
been had several times here in
Connecticut in the legislature.
Should grocery stores be
allowed to sell wine?
Package store owners are saying no way.
This morning, Girish Patel,
director of operations for
Bottle Stop Wine and Spirits,
joins us while he says allowing
grocery stores to sell is nothing
more than a quote corporate cash grab.
And in today's committee closed up the
lawmakers deciding what education looks
like for children are in our state.
Leaders of the Education Committee join
us to discuss everything from pandemic.
Learning loss to changing state curriculum,
COVID-19 vaccine mandates,
and politics in the classroom.
A deep dive into their upcoming legislation
that you won't want to miss.
Good morning and thanks for
joining us on the real story.
I'm Jen Bernstein.
In Connecticut right now,
you buy your wine at package stores.
A lot of these businesses are family
owned and they have the exclusive
rights to provide you with your vino,
but that could change.
Lawmakers are once again considering
a proposal that would allow
grocery stores to sell you wine.
It's a decades old debate here in the
state and each time it's been brought
up in the past it hasn't had legs,
so to speak.
But concerns over hurting package
stores top of mind over the years,
and there's a renewed push once
again brought on by supermarkets.
The bill has been raised in the General
Law Committee and you will be able
to weigh in when it goes to a public
hearing scheduled for February 2nd.
And thank you so much for
joining us this morning.
We want to welcome Girish Patel here,
director of operations
for a local package store,
bottle stop wine and spirits.
This is a family owned
business that you all have.
Thanks for coming on the program.
Thank you for having us.
OK, so first of all,
tell us about your business because
you all own 5 package stores.
So my family's been in business
for over 35 years in the state.
I'm second generation ownership
and we've got five locations
throughout Connecticut.
We're really proud of the
Connecticut package store,
seen amazing business opportunities
that it's provided so many people,
including my family.
OK, wonderful. So this proposal comes
up once again and you all hear that the
grocery stores are pushing for this.
Your reaction to that as a family
owned business and as someone who
owns package stores here in the state,
well, so you know,
it's no surprise that supermarkets
want wine sales in their stores.
It's one of the most profitable
products in adult beverages and of
course they're looking to fill their
aisles with more profitable products.
Constantly. It's their, uh, you know,
it's it's what business does.
What I say though is that that
Connecticut consumers stand to lose
in the long run because of this.
If passed, you'll find that there's
going to be a shift in the landscape
where Connecticut consumers will lose
access to a wide variety of products.
They'll definitely experience
a diminished level of service.
And of course it's going to have
a major impact on the small
business seen here in Connecticut.
Yeah, tell us how detrimental
it would be to you all package
source here in the state.
Well, you know. Monthly wine is
the most profitable product that
we sell in the package source.
So even if it might be a, say,
third of the revenue of any given store,
it'll equal easily be
over 50% of its margins.
So 50% of this profits derived
from the wine product.
And from there,
all of our other bills are
able to be taken care of all
of our other major expenses.
So you've removed that one component from
being exclusively available in our stores.
And obviously there's a domino
effect on what things we're
able to achieve financially.
Do you think that stores will
have to close? This passes.
I think it doesn't take a rocket
science to determine that this
will have a major negative
blowback on what package stores
ability to be profitable is.
And so as a result,
I do believe a significant number
of stores will be closing. Yes.
You know, the supermarkets argue
that this is a matter of convenience
for their customers as you were
just kind of saying that and they're
making this serious push right now.
They say that their customer wants it,
that the customer is demanding it.
Your thoughts?
What's interesting is I sell wine
for a living and I've talked to
hundreds of customers, if not.
Thousands of customers over the
past year about the subject and
not one single customers mentioned
to me that they've had a difficult
time acquiring a bottle of wine.
I personally believe that this is
a matter of intellectual dishonesty
on the supermarket side.
Isn't it interesting that they've
managed to manufacture a an issue
on wine availability and convenience
and they so happen to have the
solution which leads to greater
profits for their stores.
I've never once has anyone complain
about getting a bottle of wine in
Connecticut and that's because there's
1200 stores throughout the state.
And generally speaking,
there's always going to be a package
store either right next door to a
supermarket at the end of the strip
mall or maybe even across the street.
OK, let's talk about the language of the
bill because it was released last week.
So we're finally getting an idea of
what exactly lawmakers are are thinking
or or people are thinking when they're
going to be looking at this bill and
act authorizing grocery stores to
sell cider in small winery wines.
So they're not saying you can
just sell any wine.
According to this, there's somehow limiting.
It so and and I wanna read what
the definition of small winery is.
It means a farm winery winery or
winery group that 17 manufacturers
not more than 100,000 gallons of wine
per provided cider and small winery.
So 100,000 gallons that's not small.
I'm going to tell you right now
100,000 gallons constitutes probably
97% of the wine made in America.
So for us to say that there's 100,000
gallons of availability and that
constitutes small I think that.
I don't think that they're paying close
attention to what that really means.
And I'm hoping that I'm thinking
that they're hoping that that
gets by and is gonna mean greater
access to not just small wines,
but the full spectrum of wine
products available in Connecticut,
which again would be dramatically
hurtful to packaged to owners.
Another piece of language in the bill
is we were noticing it says that they
wouldn't be able to sell grocery stores,
would be able to sell on the premise
of any grocery store located closer
than 1000 feet from the premise.
Premises of operating under a
package store permit that's issued.
I'm I'm terrible at reading
the actual language and these,
but basically what they're saying is
that the grocery store won't be able to
sell within 1000 feet of a store that's
operating under a package store permit.
What's your thoughts on that?
My thoughts on that are very
interestingly they're going to try
and phrase it where they're going
to have this geographic exclusion,
well that's only a matter of time, right?
When they're allowed to sell
wines of 100,000 gallons or less,
we know that that's them.
Saying that they want a majority
of wine labels available to them
and when they take those labels
and put them in their store,
they're gonna siphon away
traffic from the store.
So even if there is a store
that is within 1000 feet,
the grocery store that is just a
little bit further away is going
to do enough damage to that store
where they won't be in business
for more than 2436 months at best.
And of course that grocery store
then opens up the opportunity
to have wine in their stores.
So it's a, it's it's it's tongue in cheek,
they're trying to chip away at small
business here and I see this as.
Just clever language to try and
find a way to step on the backs of
small business owners and operators
and their most profitable product.
And when we're talking
about these supermarkets,
who are we talking about here?
Are we talking about small, you know,
supermarkets here in the state?
Because it sounds like a lot of
them are larger chain supermarkets
that are pushing for this
well. So I mean the state of
Connecticut has a wide variety of
supermarkets and grocery brands.
But I think if you take a look
at who's really pushing this,
it's gotta be, I see it as being
big wise stop and shop Whole Foods.
You know, shoprites,
these are major corporations.
These are stores that do millions
upon millions of dollars every month.
And those are huge companies.
They're not small.
They're deep pocketed.
And I think,
I don't think that they need
another profit center,
especially if it means that it's going
to be on the backs of small business.
All
right. February 2nd is when this
public hearing is going to be held.
The great thing about public hearings
is you can weigh in as you know,
a resident here in the state.
You can come and make your opinion
either way on what, what you want,
and you all are going to be showing up.
I would assume for this public hearing,
correct, we're gonna have approximately
1000 people from package store,
the package store industry,
retailers, wholesalers,
suppliers, sales reps,
employees showing up to show the
Connecticut General Assembly that
this is impacting real lives.
These are Connecticut residences,
these are places, these are people that.
Require this business and this
industry to pay for their kids college
tuition to put braces on their kids
to take them to karate lessons.
This is gonna have a real impact
right here in Connecticut.
And I and I do want to note that
we did invite the Connecticut Food
Association on for this segment.
We were hoping to have kind of a
back and forth they're organizing
the push for for supermarkets here.
They didn't want to come on the
program at the time and I just want
to read this exactly as they said,
they said the debate between
the grocers and package stores.
At this early stage of our campaign
is probably best for the legislative
public hearing soon to take place,
but they said that they hope they can
come on the show sometime in the future.
So we would certainly love to
have them on to hear their side.
But Gerrish,
I really appreciate you coming on
last push to people out there who
are watching this issue closely.
Yeah, this is an important issue
because I believe it talks about
what Connecticut represents.
Do we want to champion corporate retail
or do we want to champion small business?
Do we want to strengthen
that tier or do we want to?
Diluted and ultimately create a
marketplace that is less than a
less than perfect for the consumer,
less than strong for the consumer.
We don't want to weaken their
opportunities and and their
availability and I think this
bill does all of those things.
Alright Girish Patel, thank you very much.
We will certainly be covering that
hearing that's happening on February 2nd.
Thank you. All right coming up,
today's committee close up is with the
leaders of the Education Committee.
They are going over changes that
could be coming to your child school
experience and the role that.
You play in passing them or
halting them in committee.
Stay with us for this breakdown
of educational legislation,
from cafeteria food to classroom curriculum.