No, don't allow Colorado grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine

By Lori Spanbauer and Patrick Crawford

Our relationship is a happy byproduct of Colorado's liquor laws.

In 2011, Charlie Berger and Patrick Crawford invested everything they had - as well as money from family and friends - into starting the Denver Beer Co.

Three years later, they began canning three of their more popular styles and set out to find stores willing to stock their products.

Logan Liquors sells hundreds of beer varieties from 70 Colorado breweries, and is always looking to provide customers with a great selection of locally crafted products.

So when Crawford and Berger came in and asked owner Lori Spanbauer if Logan Liquors would carry their beer, she was happy to oblige.

Allowing the sale of alcohol, wine and full-strength beer in liquor stores and limiting individuals to a single license has created thousands of small businesses across the state that look out for other local businesses.

That's a major reason Colorado has the second-most breweries per capita in the nation.

And our system isn't just a job creator; it also serves as an important public safety check, since both liquor store clerks and customers must be over the age of 21.

With out-of-state corporations plotting to change our laws in order to boost their profits, the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association and the Craft Brewers Guild have joined forces to launch Keep Colorado Local, a coalition of more than 1,000 businesses fighting for local jobs and to keep our craft culture thriving.

Colorado is home to 1,595 independent liquor stores, nearly 300 craft breweries, and almost 200 local distilleries and wineries.

During the last, unsuccessful attempt by chain stores to rewrite Colorado's liquor laws, an economic study forecast that doing so would force up to 700 liquor stores to close in just the first 5 years and lead to as many as 10,000 lost jobs in the industry.

Having recently emerged from the Great Recession and faced with new challenges from marijuana legalization, changing the law to allow the sale of liquor in up to 1,500 new outlets is not conducive to the state's well being.

In fact, it is a recipe for economic disaster, as chain stores force local stores out of business and invariably ship profits to their out-of-state corporate headquarters. (A study out of Salt Lake City, for example, found that 52 cents out of every $1 spent with a local retailer remained in the community, versus 14 cents for every $1 spent in chain stores.)

Proponents of expanded liquor sales like to point out other states with prominent craft industries allow grocery- and convenience-store sales.

What they don't tell you is the laws in most of those states date back to Prohibition, providing the most important ingredient for any industry's success: stability.

You also won't hear them talk about some very real problems.

For example, in Washington state, which voted in 2011 to allow liquor sales in chain stores, prices have gone up and, according to a report to the state legislature, there have also been increases in alcohol-related emergency room visits, liquor thefts, and "pro-alcohol attitudes" among youth.

The chain stores' marketers are selling their idea in Colorado as one of "convenience."

But if almost half of our current local liquor stores are put out of business and chain stores take hold of our local liquor market, we'll see a decrease in selection and choice.

That means small breweries like Denver Beer Co. could only distribute one or two beers, if it distributed at all.

And if we limit the growth of craft breweries, we limit their potential to positively impact Colorado's economy.

How is that convenient?

We're a part of the effort to Keep Colorado Local because we want to promote our state's economy and small businesses, protect our public safety, and support our thriving craft culture.

We're also happy to tell you who the members of our coalition are and what we believe in. Learn more about our businesses and join the effort to keep Colorado local, safe and in business at www.keepcolocal.com.