Demonstrating growing support for legislation to update laws on sale of beer, wine and spirits, retailers and industry leaders from across Kansas come to Topeka
(Topeka, KS) – To start the second day of a march on the Kansas State Capitol, employees, managers and store owners from grocery and convenience stores both large and small from across the state held a press conference today to ask their Senators to vote in favor of Senate Bill No. 54. The group, in tandem with the Coalition for Jobs and Choice (CJCC), will meet again today with members of the state legislature to voice their support for the legislation to update state regulations on the sale of beer, wine and spirits.
“There’s no reason the government should protect one set of small business owners, while holding back the success of others,” said Chris Darrah, owner of nine Dara’s Fast Lane stores in Manhattan. “I know my business will be able to grow if we reform the law to allow convenience stores to sell full-strength beer, wine, and spirits. I’m just asking for the chance to compete on a level playing field.”
An economic study by Dr. Art Hall finds that passage of SB 54 will throw a much needed lifeline to convenience and grocery stores in rural areas struggling to survive by creating thousands of jobs and millions in state and local revenue.
Troy Bailey, owner of Bailey’s Food Bin in Claflin stated, “Some say that this will put liquor store owners out of business. This is not the case in many rural areas. The closest liquor store to Claflin is in Great Bend – about 20 miles away. Allowing my store to provide these products just gives me much needed revenue in a difficult economy and gives my customers increased convenience. No one is getting shut down. Customers simply won’t have to drive an hour out of their way anymore.”
Click here to read “An Economic Case for Increased Competition in the Sale of Beer, Wine, and Spirits in the State of Kansas” by Dr. Art Hall, Director of the Center for Applied Economics at the University of Kansas.
The Coalition for Jobs and Consumer Choice (CJCC) represents hundreds of companies and thousands of Kansans who recognize the immediate and positive impact that updated laws on the sale of beer, wine and spirits will have on the Kansas economy. To learn more, please visit CJCC’s website at www.jobsforkansas.com.
SOURCE Coalition for Jobs and Consumer Choice
“The closest liquor store to Claflin is in Great Bend – about 20 miles away… Customers simply won’t have to drive an hour out of their way anymore.”
I wasn’t aware that it took anybody 1 hour to drive twenty miles. While I’m all for convenience and grocery stores selling beer, wine, and spirits I think this particular argument is pretty weak.
Does someone want to explain how this would make it a level playing field. Out of the 700+ liquor stores most of us are smaller than your average convenience store. This being said, these stores would not have the room to adjust their inventory accordingly to make room for these additional items. Not to mention the extensive cost of remodeling the store to accommodate the change. Most owners don’t have the extra income. If we wanted to sell chips we would of opened a convenience store. Do you really think that thousands of jobs would be created. If Dr. Art Hall new anything about scheduling of staff in a Target, Walmart, or retail store of any kind, you wouldn’t hire additional help just to ring up alchol whether you added one more register or not. There would be no more jobs created when there would be plenty of extra hours available amoung the thousands of employees already working for these companies. However there would be over a thousand of jobs lost after the smaller liquor store would have to close down based on competion and flooding of the market. I don’t know about you, I would like to be able to provide for my family. It would really suck to tell my kids that Walmart, Quik Trip, Target and the other chains (who make millions a year already) made Daddy go bankrupt and I that I can’t provide for them. Why? Because their selfish and greedy. One last thing I would like to figure out. How would millions in state and local revenue be created, as Dr. Art Hall mentioned? How would this be local when the large corperations involved are not even anchored in Kansas? do you really think the money is going to stay here? Just because the state would be flooded with places to sell alcohol, doesn’t mean you are going to create new alcohol consumers to generate the millions as stated. You cannot force someone to purchase alcohol just because it is more accessible. Can’t we just leave the small business owner alone and let us make a living?
@kaznokrad I don’t know much about this particular argument but I guess it didn’t occur to you that if you drive 20 miles one way to get liquor you generally have to drive BACK 20 miles. This would equal 40 miles which would probably take about an hour if the trip didn’t include many high speed freeways.
If grocery and convenience store owners want to sell strong beer, liquor and wine then open a liquor store. There is nothing stopping them under today’s laws.
It’s amazing to me that people are so afraid of a more competitive market that they’re willing to support an archaic law. If you think you’re going to go out of business just because a few non-specialty stores can sell booze near you, maybe you should look into running yours better.