A reminder of what is happening in Colorado and the importance of your political involvement, as noted in Gary's article above.
If you recall, Colorado passed Sunday Sales several years ago.
Since then, grocers have tried various strategies to get some sort of strong alcohol in their facilities.
This is what will happen in Minnesota: Colorado: 3.2 beer could disappear in Colorado
Source: Coloradoan
Adrian D. Garcia
April 11, 2016
There's an aisle in the majority of Colorado grocery stores filled with nice, cold beer - beer that almost nobody wants.
A decade ago, beers with low-alcohol content were among the few options for Coloradans who wanted to pick up a six pack before watching Sunday football.
But then in 2008, liquor stores throughout the state started selling "real beer" seven days a week and sales of the full-strength beers' 3.2-percent-alcohol cousin started drying up.
If grocery giants Walmart, Kroger and Safeway-Albertsons successfully change Colorado's alcohol laws, sales of "3.2 beer" in the state could disappear altogether.
Unknowing out-of-state residents and those who prefer convenience are the main purchasers of beer from grocery stores that aren't licensed to carry full-strength beer, supermarkets say.
"I'm a fan of being able to pick up my beer in grocery stores," said Dan Smith, a 25-year-old freshman at Colorado State University. "I came from San Diego where they did sell beer at grocery stores."
After Smith moved to Fort Collins in early 2015, he picked up an 18-pack of Budweiser at the King Soopers on South College Avenue.
"An 18-pack for like 15 bucks seemed like a good deal, then I got it home and realized that it wasn't," Smith said of the grocery-bought beer's less-than-desired effects.
He started buying beer from liquor stores and breweries after he found out most Colorado grocery stores can only sell low-alcohol beer with as much as 3.2 percent alcohol by volume.
In a chain of stores, such as Target, King Soopers or Trader Joe's, only one retail location in the state can sell full-strength beer, wine and liquor.
To draw beer drinkers like Smith, grocers are pushing a change to Colorado's alcohol laws through the group Your Choice Colorado.
Changes proposed by Your Choice Colorado would allow all grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine, but not liquor.
The group is currently collecting signatures to get a ballot question before voters in November.
Colorado's liquor store owners largely oppose the change to put full-strength beer on grocery shelves, arguing it would cost their industry thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in sales across the state.
Craft brewers have voiced concerns about getting their beers on grocery shelves largely dominated by large domestic brewers.
Groups opposing Your Choice Colorado have pitched ballot proposals that would block beer and wine sales in grocery stores.
"We're in the business of carrying products that our customers want.
If they're asking for craft beer, then we don't want to sell 3.2 beer," said Safeway-Albertsons spokeswoman Kris Staaf.
Most of the 93 Albertsons and Safeway stores throughout the state sell beer with 3.2 percent alcohol, Staaf said.
The same is true for the majority of Colorado's 147 King Soopers, said store spokeswoman Kelli McGannon.
"Convenience is one of the top reasons people choose to shop at grocery stores. For that reason, we still carry (3.2 beer)," McGannon said.
If grocery stores could sell full-strength beer, "you would certainly see 3.2 beer become obsolete in Colorado."
Safeway-Albertsons "wouldn't have a need to carry it," Staaf said.
Both Safeway-Albertsons and King Soopers declined to share annual beer sales for propriety reasons. Safeway-Albertsons reportedly saw a double-digit percentage drop in 3.2 beer sales after liquor stores started selling on Sundays. King Soopers reported a similar decline after 2007.
Beer drinkers consumed 4.5 million gallons of 3.2 beer in 2015, generating $357,064 in revenue, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Both consumption and sales were down 68 percent - by roughly 3.1 million gallons of beer or $244,210 - from 2007 levels.
Only five companies are licensed to brew 3.2 beer throughout the state including New Belgium Brewing Co. and Anheuser-Busch in Fort Collins.
The 3.2 market in Colorado and the U.S. is already "very limited." Production would "probably decrease," but not halt completely, if full-strength beer is OK'd for grocery stores, said New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson.
".... With a few other states like Utah, Kansas and possibly Oklahoma some day, we would still likely produce a 3.2 version of Fat Tire," Simpson said in a statement.
"If Utah and Oklahoma were to change their laws, we would have to revisit whether or not it makes sense to produce 3.2."
It's unclear if Anheuser-Busch would continue manufacturing 3.2 beer in Fort Collins.
"Ultimately, our focus is on the customer and we will be prepared to continue to provide Coloradans with the products they demand," said Anheuser-Busch regional vice president Anson Frericks in a statement to the Coloradoan.
It is important to note, the coalition against the proposal includes small brewers and distilleries:
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.
