RES 84-022 RESOLUTION OPPOSING ANY AND ALL MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATION WHICH WOULD PERMIT THE SALE OF WINE IN GROCERY STORES

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• RESOLUTION 84-022 A RESOLUTION OPPOSING ANY AND ALL MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATION WHICH WOULD PERMIT THE SALE OF WINE IN GROCERY STORES WHEREAS, the City of St. Anthony opposes legislation which would reduce our ability to control properly the dispensation of alcohol in our community. Our voters have made the decision that the City will have complete control of both on-sale and off-sale liquor establish- ments and our record in terms of sales to minors , dramshop claims and alcohol related problems in our community is excellent. The City 's interest in alcohol and drug abuse extends to joint funding with the local school district of our Chemical Abuse Advisory Committee which has made excellent progress within the community in its efforts to educate youth about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and adults con- cerning responsible use of alcoholic beverages . Other concerns we have about the pending legislation include: 1. State-wide public hearings gave this issue a strong look two years ago and it met thundering defeat; 2 . Proper public policy does not support a 300%-500% increase in the number of outlets for off-sale wine in our state. Distribution studies from across the nation clearly demon- strate that as the number of outlets increase, CONTROL DECREASES; 3. Studies from states that now have wine in grocery stores clearly show that the teenage employees -of convenience stores do not strongly resist underage sales . Indeed, those states have high DWI involvement among young people and are the states seeking to raise minimum drinking ages; 4 . Only 4 states that allow wine in grocery stores have resisted efforts to also permit spirits in grocery stores; 5. Tax revenues would not increase since our wine taxes in Minnesota are among the lowest in the nation. Thus , replacing i beer or spirit sales with wine sales would not benefit state tax coffers. . .unless , of course, overall consumption were to expand dramatically. Such an expansion would be in marked contrast to present public policy . Furthermore , the destruction of municipal liquor stores would place a severe i strain on local tax budgets ; 6. Wine in grocery stores would mainly benefit the large chain stores who account for about 70% of sales while driving hundreds of small municipal and private retailers out of business with a net loss of jobs to Minnesotans; and 7. Consumers would suffer a sharp decline in the number of Is wines available and most wines will sharply appreciate in price to cover sales declines , especially higher quality wines which are now "underwritten" by the popular brands that would be used as "loss leaders" in the grocery adver- tisements. j