The Maryland Consumer Freedom Coalition, backed by the Maryland Retailers Alliance trade association, is renewing its effort for the state to legalize beer and wine sales in grocery stores.
Maryland Retailers Alliance President Cailey Locklair said outside a Giant grocery store Thursday that, since grocery stores and other similar retailers operate on such thin margins, allowing beer and wine sales could be the difference between shutting down and their ability to stay open, especially given competition from stores in nearby jurisdictions.
“In Maryland, we are at a competitive disadvantage,” Ms. Locklair said. Residents who live near the state’s borders cross state lines into the District, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, “where there is one-stop shopping and grocery stores where they can not only buy their groceries, but also purchase their beer and wine.”
She was backed up at the press conference by state Delegate Marlon Amprey, District 40 Democrat and sponsor of previous failed bills to legalize the sale of beer and wine outside of a select group of grandfathered-in stores.
Mr. Amprey, whose district mostly represents West Baltimore, said he was reintroducing his Alcoholic Beverages Modernization Act for the upcoming Maryland legislative session, which starts in January.
Mr. Amprey said Maryland should allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores to make it more convenient for families and workers, give grocery stores more of an edge to stay in neighborhoods that they might otherwise leave, and because of customer safety.
“Some of the establishments in my neighborhoods are tattered. They have bulletproof glass and individuals don’t necessarily feel safe shopping for their beer and wine in these areas. It’s important that we have the option and choice to go to a store that’s well lit like this parking lot right here that has stable hours so people can be able to buy their beer and wine in a safe place,” Mr. Amprey said.
Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has expressed support for a change in the law.
“Like the vast majority of Marylanders across political parties and regions, he supports lifting Maryland’s ban on beer and wine sales in grocery stores. The governor looks forward to working with the General Assembly to bring Maryland in line with more than 40 other states that have successfully implemented this commonsense reform,” Rhyan Lake, senior communications strategist for Mr. Moore, told WMAR-TV.
The other states that ban both beer and wine sales in grocery stores are Delaware, Alaska and Rhode Island, according to 2021 maps from the Food Industry Association.
Efforts to change the existing laws continue to be opposed by the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, which represents the stores and businesses allowed to sell beer, wine and liquor in Maryland.
Direct sales provide for 138,200 jobs that pay $3.7 billion in wages statewide, and they generate $1.46 billion in state and local taxes, the group says.
A lift on the ban would hurt small businesses and imperil those jobs by reducing their share of beer and wine sales, the group argues.
“Look, this isn’t rocket science. If you have a pie and I cut it eight ways, then we all get an eighth. If I cut it 16 ways, we get a 16th. So unless you know you can grow this pie in a great way, we’re going to get hurt,” Jack Milani, owner of a pub in western Baltimore County and legislative co-chair of the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, told Maryland Matters in February.
