We Could Learn from Alcohol Sellers

I just received the following from the Maryland Retailers Association, in their push to allow alcohol sales at grocery stores in Maryland.

They are gearing up for the 2022 legislative session. We could learn from this.

The Maryland gun community could learn from this. MSI, MSRPA, or the NRA-ILA could start reaching out NOW.

We could identify the one legislatiove proposal we want to push. One proposal that has the possibility of, if not passing, getting a committee hearing. And pushing it again next year.

I'm geting tired of just pointing out the stupidity of the various anti-gun proposals.

MSI Leadership? MSRPA leadership? NRA-ILA rep?
Talk to one another. Now.



Hello Team Maryland Alcohol Choice,

You haven’t heard from us in a while, but it’s because we’ve been busy advocating for you! We’re reaching back out to ask for your help with our fight to allow Maryland’s groceries, wholesale clubs, pharmacies and food retailers to sell alcohol in-store.

Maryland is one of only a handful of states where you are prohibited from buying a 6-pack of beer in your grocery store. We want to change that as much as you do! Over the coming weeks, we will be asking you to contact your state legislators to change the law. We introduced a bill in 2021 and we're bringing it back in 2022 with some improvements. Although the next legislative session doesn’t begin until January, we want to make sure you are prepared to combat every twisted claim you hear against our goals. Be on the lookout for some upcoming emails from us to help inform you and dispel some of the bogus myths perpetrated by the opposition. We will make it easy in each email to contact your legislator and tell them that you want beer and wine to be sold in your grocery store, you want better pricing, you want convenience, and you want better access to healthy food stores that will be able to come to more communities if they can sell alcohol to help their bottom line.

Thank you for continuing to engage on this important issue! Please share this email with your family, friends, and neighbors to ask them to sign up and get involved. You can always find us online at www.mdalcoholchoice.com.

The law in this state cannot and will not change without your voice!
Contact your Legislators Here
In the mean time, have you liked us on social media, shared our website with your friends, and signed our petition yet? The only way we're going to get this legislation through is with help from the whole community.

I'm all for freedom and free markets, so on that front, I'd like to see beer sold everywhere. However, the guys that run beer stores have been playing by the rules for a LONG time, and this would completely hose them. It sucks that crappy laws beget crappy situations and we should never had to put up with them in the first place, but we're here now, and need to play the hand we have.

Next up, pot.

So, the difference is that liberals also like booze. So you can craft an appeal to them on the subject that might actually connect and gain support. But their irrational anti-gun hatred is baked in with an essentially religious fervor. The overwhelming majority of Maryland's residents - and the legislators they reflexively send to Annapolis - are, personally, convinced that we need more gun control, less availability, etc. The substantial D majority in the state legislature (and our soon to be next lefty Governor, without fail) think ONLY in terms of how your access to guns and ammo and your ability to use them can be curtailed, because that's the only sane thing that anyone would want, blah blah blah. They actually mean that. They really think it. And they run the state, by wide margins.

Mustering our collective time and lobbying resources around new legislation that will liberalize gun ownership, transportation, and use in Maryland is simply a waste. Such proposals will never get out of committee. Just look at the totally reasonable bills that get shouted down ... say, not having to pay for a carry permit class until you get MSP's ruling on whether or not you'll be able to even get one at all. Gosh, that sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Nope! That's a Good Thing for a tiny number of potential W&C permit applicants, and thus it must be crushed because it's not in some way anti-gun/owner. No amount of positive PR-ing on that sort of thing would have moved the needle an inch. Broader, more sweeping legislative initiatives that would make a wider swath of gun owning Marylanders happy? Absolutely zero chance of getting traction in the GA. They actively, aggressively hate me, you, and anyone in our camp. With a passion, and with the sure knowledge that they can crush anything we propose with a simple email to their caucus members.

No, our resources are indeed better spent on pointing out the shaky ground (judicially) on which many of their anti-gun bills stand, and funding organizations able to pursue those matters in court. To whatever extent talking to our legislators does anything but make them hate us even more, it's a purely defensive campaign, aimed at showing them they'll lose court challenges if they go too far.

Wish it weren't so, but it is. If the demographics in the 270/95 corridor chunk of the state weren't absolutely guaranteed to effortlessly crush anything we'd actually want to achieve, I'd say yes indeed, ramp up the PR machine. But the reality is the GA will never entertain anything but further rights reductions, and our energies need to go into blocking those or gearing up for protracted court battles after they inevitably and effortlessly pass them.

None of these demographic certainties apply when we're talking things like beer and wine in grocery stores. So, apples/oranges.

gtodave said:

I'm all for freedom and free markets, so on that front, I'd like to see beer sold everywhere. However, the guys that run beer stores have been playing by the rules for a LONG time, and this would completely hose them. It sucks that crappy laws beget crappy situations and we should never had to put up with them in the first place, but we're here now, and need to play the hand we have.

Click to expand...

Dumb argument.

I like dedicated booze stores. Their selection is better, they can place special orders for me, and they're often more convenient than going to the grocery store. Maybe I'm a minority in this regard, but I'd still shop at my local liquor store even if I could buy beer and wine at Giant or Weis or Walmart.

bibitor said:

Dumb argument.

I like dedicated booze stores. Their selection is better, they can place special orders for me, and they're often more convenient than going to the grocery store. Maybe I'm a minority in this regard, but I'd still shop at my local liquor store even if I could buy beer and wine at Giant or Weis or Walmart.

Click to expand...

Well no, it's not. It's trying to be fair to the guys that took a risk to fill a gap in the market. With this you'd be flooding that gap, which if done from the start, would be fair. But that's not where we're at.

I still think I'd support it though, because freedom. And I'd still shop at my local beer store for the reasons you mentioned above.


And to the OP: I know you didn't intend to argue the merits of this alcohol bill, but hey...I have the attention span of a squirrel

gtodave said:

Well no, it's not. It's trying to be fair to the guys that took a risk to fill a gap in the market. With this you'd be flooding that gap, which if done from the start, would be fair. But that's not where we're at.

I still think I'd support it though, because freedom. And I'd still shop at my local beer store for the reasons you mentioned above.


And to the OP: I know you didn't intend to argue the merits of this alcohol bill, but hey...I have the attention span of a squirrel

Click to expand...

So much this. (speaking for myself)

Alcohol sales locastions differs by county in Maryland. In Talbot county. beer and wine are sold in grocery stores. There is a Rite Aid in Easton that sells beer wine and spirits. But, they are no longer issuing that type of license and this one if grandfathered.

Rambler said:

Alcohol sales locastions differs by county in Maryland. In Talbot county. beer and wine are sold in grocery stores. There is a Rite Aid in Easton that sells beer wine and spirits. But, they are no longer issuing that type of license and this one if grandfathered.

Click to expand...

...as does the (former) Rite Aid in Annapolis, now a Walgreens. I think the grandfathering allowed a chain to have 2 locations per county. And Anglers, on Rt-50, has both alcohol and guns/ammo. You don't see that often anymore.

JoeR

Sent from my SM-T547U using Tapatalk

Rambler said:

Alcohol sales locations differs by county in Maryland. In Talbot county. beer and wine are sold in grocery stores. There is a Rite Aid in Easton that sells beer wine and spirits. But, they are no longer issuing that type of license and this one if grandfathered.

Click to expand...

St.Mary's doesn't allow any chains to have a liquor license, even a locally owned grocery store chain cannot mix their liquor license with their store. Doesn't Montgomery County own/run the liquor stores?

hitwtom said:

St.Mary's doesn't allow any chains to have a liquor license, even a locally owned grocery store chain cannot mix their liquor license with their store. Doesn't Montgomery County own/run the liquor stores?

Click to expand...

Yes, MoCo owns the liquor stores AND they own all of the beer and wine distribution. Luckily, we have a specially appointed board of liquor control people who - the poor bastards - are forced to travel the world on junkets to French vinyards, Scottish distilleries, wineries all around the world and such in order to look out for our interests. Because, you know, we can't POSSIBLY trust a local store to choose the right things to inventory from all of the makers who would gladly deliver it directly to their stores without the county playing mafia middlemen.

Yeah, I get a little testy on this topic.

Several years ago, I supported the legislative fight to allow wine shipments to consumers in MD. There was one person in the GA, who was on the committee, who had a vested interest in the 3 tier distribution system and individually stopped that legislation for years. Finally got it done. But like beer in grocery stores, there was an overwhelming majority of people who wanted wine shipped to homes, and one jackass who could stop it. Pretty sure the same is true in this case.

As a consumer, I get a lot of wine shipped to my house. I also spend a lot of money on wine and beer and booze in brick and mortar stores. It's a different experience to develop a relationship with a local retailer who knows more about the subject than I do. And being able to pick up a six pack of Fat Tire at Whole Foods isn't going to stop me from visiting my local liquor store to get a more unusual brand of beer (no grocery store will carry Anchor Steam, or Blackened Voodoo, or Abita Turbo Dog, or Dortmunder), or specific wine for tomorrow night's fish, or that weird bourbon no one has heard of but tastes better than Blantons for half the price.

Anyway, as Occam said, it's apples/oranges. Remember a couple of years ago the secretary of the MD Democratic party called us terrorists and wanted to dox people wearing "we will not comply" t-shirts? Remember how many "centrist" Democrats stood up against what he said? Me either. They think we're terrorists. They have no interest in discussing rational legislation, they have no interest in exploring MD's long standing racist history with respect to gun restrictions, and they have no interest in learning what laws are actually on the books. I've had discussions with people who, when asked "what new common sense gun laws should we implement?" come up with answers far less draconian than the laws we already have. Yet they will always push for more. When we point out that the number of gun deaths has gone up every year since 2013 (and not all driven by murders in Baltimore City), they just say that's more reason for more restrictions.

We live in a state where, if you have a permit to carry, you don't dare tell anyone. I would absolutely lose clients if they knew I carried while showing them houses. Winning the war of ideas is a very, very long game... winning in the courts is what's important right now.

(Edited for clarity)

The difference is that both the alcohol distributors assn and the retail merchants assn have long standing relationships of Lobbying and quasi bribing , with serious budgets .

Could a 2A consortium kick things up a notch with the MGA with a couple $100k per year to dole out ? Is it likely for the Md 2A community to reach into their pockets for an extra $100k , on top of the already too small donations for court cases ? ( I'm being mostly rhetorical here .)

Greater coordination between the handful of pro 2A legislators ? Sounds good in abstract . But in our legislative environment , a couple similar Bills on similar topic , but with different language could equally well be seen as multiple attempts to see if one of them could gain a toehold . Most Pro Legislators don't hesitate to also support 2A Bills introduced by others .

EVERY Bill of any flavor Always gets heard in a Commttee . Most of them , of any subject matter go no further .

The Conditonal Approval for W&C came within 27 minutes of passing a few years ago , and would have , except for the timing of final countdown shenanigans on the last night of the sessons . And would probably have better than 50/ 50 odds if pushed again .

bibitor said:

Dumb argument.

I like dedicated booze stores. Their selection is better, they can place special orders for me, and they're often more convenient than going to the grocery store. Maybe I'm a minority in this regard, but I'd still shop at my local liquor store even if I could buy beer and wine at Giant or Weis or Walmart.

Click to expand...

I prefer dedicated as well. That said, it IS nice to occasionally have one stop shopping when I am doing something like when I am on vacation. Then I am probably just looking for a six pack of something. Not a big deal when the liquor store is in the same strip as the Walmart or grocery store. A lot more annoying when it is somewhere else.

Well, I'm coming from a completely biased position, I'm a non-operating owner of a liquor/wine/beer store. Would I prefer this doesn't get approved? Of course, it will hurt sales. But if it does, it means we'll just have to work harder to earn the business.

Sealion said:

Well, I'm coming from a completely biased position, I'm a non-operating owner of a liquor/wine/beer store. Would I prefer this doesn't get approved? Of course, it will hurt sales. But if it does, it means we'll just have to work harder to earn the business.

Click to expand...

You should say which store.

I'm sure we could drum up some business for you.

KevinK said:

You should say which store.

I'm sure we could drum up some business for you.

Click to expand...

LOL. No doubt.

It's probably a haul for you, but it's at 2320 York Road in Timonium. I asked Mods previously about sharing that info and they were okay as long as I wasn't flogging it all the time. My wife runs it.

Hit me up with any special orders. If we can get it from the distributor I'll try to get a good price for MDS members. (and no, we can't get the extremely rare bourbons, they are generally all allocated.)

Sealion said:

LOL. No doubt.

It's probably a haul for you, but it's at 2320 York Road in Timonium. I asked Mods previously about sharing that info and they were okay as long as I wasn't flogging it all the time. My wife runs it.

Hit me up with any special orders. If we can get it from the distributor I'll try to get a good price for MDS members. (and no, we can't get the extremely rare bourbons, they are generally all allocated.)

Click to expand...

Looked it up.

Right across from An Poitin Still, and near the gold/silver dealer. And not super far from Andy Nelson.

I'm in that area sometimes. Next time I'll swing by and say hi.

I'm not there all that much. It's really my wife's gig, but if you see an old white dude with gray hair that's me. Come by on almost every Fridays at 4:30 to 6:30 for various tastings.