By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
Forty-six states around the country allow shoppers to purchase their booze where they buy their food, but not New Jersey. Proponents of a bill to expand the state’s liquor license cap, say the law is past it’s shelf life.
“What this bill does is it gets rid of an old byzantine restriction that prohibits some supermarkets from having more than two liquor licenses,” AJ Sabath, Executive Director of Retailer for Responsible Liquor Licensing, said.
A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Lou Greenwald would gradually increase the current two-license limit imposed on grocery stores and retailers, to ten. The legislation isn’t new. Advocates have been fighting in earnest to update the 1962 law for the last decade. It doesn’t change how many licenses a municipality may issue, but increases how many a single entity can hold.
“We believe that this bill would create hundreds of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs afterward. It would inject millions of dollars into the state’s economy just through the construction and also through increased sales,” Sabath said.
“This is just a big push by big business, that’s all I see it as,” Clark Boyd, Owner of Boyd’s Pharmacy and Liquors, said.
Many small retailers fear the change would cut into sales, putting them out of business. The owner of Boyd’s Pharmacy, a nearly 100 year-old family owned and operated store, says he’s doubtful it would spark job creation. One large chain could put dozens of smaller stores out of business. He adds that most retailers use existing staff to take on new duties rather than hire new. He says the value of his license — which cost hundreds of thousands — would be diminished.
“Near me there’s a few different food stores. Just think if they were able to sell liquor or wine and beer to the extent that it would put me out of business? What am I going to do with my liquor license? Am I going to sell it to somebody? Who’s going to buy it? Nobody,” Boyd said.
“There’s an economic study that’s been done in the state of Massachusetts on a similar bill that was modeled after the New Jersey bill sponsored by Assemblyman Greenwald that showed a $32 million increase in that state’s economy, as well as an increase in total overall liquor sales,” Sabath said. “It debunks the myth that there’s a pie, and if you allow for more liquor to be sold in other supermarkets that it would just be cannibalizing other stores and the evidence simply doesn’t support that.”
But the New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance doesn’t see that math, saying in a statement: “If changing the current law would increase investment in our economy and the quality of life for our community then why did A&P, who had 20 plus liquor licenses, go out of business? This is nothing more than an attempt to allow for big box stores and their out-of-state corporations to put our local licensees out of business.”
Many A&P stores across the state held liquor licenses that pre-existed the 1962 law which allowed them to sell alcohol. However, as those stores close and reopen under new management, like this one in Little Silver, both the owners and customers are learning that those licenses are non-transferable and the supermarkets are no longer grandfathered in the system.
ACME already holds two liquor licenses at stores elsewhere in the state, so they can’t sell here unless the law changes. Opponents say the desire for more convenience and one-stop-shopping is going to come at an irreversible cost.