Tagged: grocery

Legislation to allow wine to be sold in Tennessee supermarkets and convenience stores isn’t quite dead yet.

A tie vote in the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday morning initially indicated that bill had failed for the year. But a spokesman confirmed later in the day that Democratic Sen. Douglas Henry, who abstained on that vote now wants to vote in favor of the measure after receiving assurances that it would no longer include a provision allowing Sunday liquor sales.

Supporters of allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores are holding out hope that it could still happen this year. But leaders of the Tennessee House say don’t hold your breath.

A deal on wine in supermarkets is still working its way through the state Senate, but the House has been silent since a narrow committee vote killed the bill two weeks ago.

House Speaker Beth Harwell single-handedly kept an effort alive that would allow grocery stores to begin selling wine. In a rare move, today she broke a tie in a legislative subcommittee. 

The speaker can vote on any of the committees. And for the first time this year, Harwell chose to do so. She says it’s time to find a compromise that would still be agreeable to the state’s 600 liquor stores, which are the only places wine can be sold now.

“We don’t want to hurt those liquor stores, and we want to do everything we can to make this as palatable to them as possible," she said. "This brings everyone to the table to discuss it.”

In the Senate, Speaker Ron Ramsey has played a critical role in moving the wine-in-supermarkets legislation, admitting he structured one committee with the bill in mind.

The leader of the largest Christian denomination in the state begged state lawmakers not to expand what kinds of stores can sell wine. Until now, this year’s debate over wine in grocery stores has been about economics and fairness, not morality.

The legislation would ultimately leave it up to each city to vote on whether to allow wine in supermarkets. It’s similar to the way towns can vote on sales of liquor by the drink, and Randy Davis of the Tennessee Baptist Convention says such policies involving alcohol divide families.

“It gets bad in these towns over these kinds of issues,” he said.

A bill that would effectively block grocery stores from selling wine and liquor—and ban wine and liquor sales in new pharmacies—was approved today in a state House committee.

Under the legislation, grocery stores could still sell alcohol from an adjoined structure with a separate entrance. 

Current law does not allow people younger than 21 to enter a place which sells wine and package liquor, which has prevented sales in grocery stores in the past.