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Same here but I came from California. Liquor stores are rare.
And why do you think that is?
If this law passes, there will be casualties -- the thousands of people who own and work in liquor stores. Right now there are about 1,600 liquor stores in the Colorado and the majority of their income (about 75%) comes from beer and wine sales. If any business loses 50% or more of its revenues, it is going to struggle to stay open. Layoffs will follow, and stores will close.
Some larger liquor stores may be able to keep the lights on, but at a cost. Hard liquor will likely become more expensive as these stores, many in the middle of their leases, will struggle to pay rent.
Part of this will play out like the Wal-Martization of small towns. The big corporations will come in, force producers to supply product at razor-thin margins to drive down prices and put the small business owners out of business before raising prices once the competition is gone.
Part of this will play out like airline deregulation did; prices will go lower, but service will be non-existent. Do you think Wal-Mart, King Soopers, and Safeway are going to hire knowledgeable wine and beer personnel to help you find a wine for dinner? Nope. It's going to be Chip from the grocery department who will help you out with words of wisdom like, "My friends and I don't drink wine. We just buy the cheap beer so we can get drunk quicker."
In the end, the big losers will be the state of Colorado. Liquor stores are locally owned and their profits stay in the state. Grocery stores are headquartered in California, Ohio, and Arkansas. Their profits leave the state.
If this law passes, there will be casualties -- the thousands of people who own and work in liquor stores. Right now there are about 1,600 liquor stores in the Colorado and the majority of their income (about 75%) comes from beer and wine sales. If any business loses 50% or more of its revenues, it is going to struggle to stay open. Layoffs will follow, and stores will close.
Some larger liquor stores may be able to keep the lights on, but at a cost. Hard liquor will likely become more expensive as these stores, many in the middle of their leases, will struggle to pay rent.
Part of this will play out like the Wal-Martization of small towns. The big corporations will come in, force producers to supply product at razor-thin margins to drive down prices and put the small business owners out of business before raising prices once the competition is gone.
Part of this will play out like airline deregulation did; prices will go lower, but service will be non-existent. Do you think Wal-Mart, King Soopers, and Safeway are going to hire knowledgeable wine and beer personnel to help you find a wine for dinner? Nope. It's going to be Chip from the grocery department who will help you out with words of wisdom like, "My friends and I don't drink wine. We just buy the cheap beer so we can get drunk quicker."
In the end, the big losers will be the state of Colorado. Liquor stores are locally owned and their profits stay in the state. Grocery stores are headquartered in California, Ohio, and Arkansas. Their profits leave the state.
If this law passes, there will be casualties -- the thousands of people who own and work in liquor stores. Right now there are about 1,600 liquor stores in the Colorado and the majority of their income (about 75%) comes from beer and wine sales. If any business loses 50% or more of its revenues, it is going to struggle to stay open. Layoffs will follow, and stores will close.
Some larger liquor stores may be able to keep the lights on, but at a cost. Hard liquor will likely become more expensive as these stores, many in the middle of their leases, will struggle to pay rent.
Part of this will play out like the Wal-Martization of small towns. The big corporations will come in, force producers to supply product at razor-thin margins to drive down prices and put the small business owners out of business before raising prices once the competition is gone.
Part of this will play out like airline deregulation did; prices will go lower, but service will be non-existent. Do you think Wal-Mart, King Soopers, and Safeway are going to hire knowledgeable wine and beer personnel to help you find a wine for dinner? Nope. It's going to be Chip from the grocery department who will help you out with words of wisdom like, "My friends and I don't drink wine. We just buy the cheap beer so we can get drunk quicker."
In the end, the big losers will be the state of Colorado. Liquor stores are locally owned and their profits stay in the state. Grocery stores are headquartered in California, Ohio, and Arkansas. Their profits leave the state.
YES! This will be exactly the situation. Tried to rep you, apparently gotta spread the love around a bit first.
If this law passes, there will be casualties -- the thousands of people who own and work in liquor stores. Right now there are about 1,600 liquor stores in the Colorado and the majority of their income (about 75%) comes from beer and wine sales. If any business loses 50% or more of its revenues, it is going to struggle to stay open. Layoffs will follow, and stores will close.
Some larger liquor stores may be able to keep the lights on, but at a cost. Hard liquor will likely become more expensive as these stores, many in the middle of their leases, will struggle to pay rent.
Part of this will play out like the Wal-Martization of small towns. The big corporations will come in, force producers to supply product at razor-thin margins to drive down prices and put the small business owners out of business before raising prices once the competition is gone.
Part of this will play out like airline deregulation did; prices will go lower, but service will be non-existent. Do you think Wal-Mart, King Soopers, and Safeway are going to hire knowledgeable wine and beer personnel to help you find a wine for dinner? Nope. It's going to be Chip from the grocery department who will help you out with words of wisdom like, "My friends and I don't drink wine. We just buy the cheap beer so we can get drunk quicker."
In the end, the big losers will be the state of Colorado. Liquor stores are locally owned and their profits stay in the state. Grocery stores are headquartered in California, Ohio, and Arkansas. Their profits leave the state.
I know why that is. I tried to rep you too but I need to spread it around a bit.
Just got back from the Phoenix area where I visit to see spring training baseball and escape the cold a while.
No liquor stores in AZ, it's all sold in supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. Fry's (the Kroger empire) sells it all and I found deals there that would stun COLO buyers. My fave Chardonnay is Kendall-Jackson which usually sells for $14.99 here in most liquor stores and maybe $12.99 if it's "on sale." Fry's had it on sale for $5.99 a bottle with a 6-bottle purchase. You'll never see a price like that here - not until COLO law changes to allow the supermarkets to sell the stuff.
We might see the legislature throw the mom and pop liquor stores a bone to keep them in business, which could be done by restricting supermarkets to anything with an alcohol content less than 18% while restricting hard liquor only to the mom and pop stores who could carry any form of alcohol, etc. But if the state throws out all of the current restrictions we can expect half to two-thirds of the mom and pops to close up shop sooner or later.
It's interesting to see the state protect this one form of mom and pop enterprise given that no one gave a damn when big box chains with tons of Wall Street money rolled up just about every form of retailing there was. There are just about no mom and pops left in the businesses of: office supplies; books; movies; music; kitchenwares; linens; auto parts; hobbies and crafts; etc. Then there are the tens of thousands of small retailers all rolled up by the all-time retail steamroller known as Wal-Mart, who've destroyed the downtown personal shopping experience in just about every small town in America. No one protected any of these businesses, but Colorado protects the mom and pop booze merchants; someone please tell me what's going on here...
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found deals there that would stun COLO buyers. My fave Chardonnay ..usually sells for $14.99 here in most liquor stores and maybe $12.99 if it's "on sale." Fry's had it on sale for $5.99 a bottle with a 6-bottle purchase. You'll never see a price like that here.
I think a huge part of the price difference could be the required 3-tier distribution system in Colorado.
Just got back from the Phoenix area where I visit to see spring training baseball and escape the cold a while.
No liquor stores in AZ, it's all sold in supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. Fry's (the Kroger empire) sells it all and I found deals there that would stun COLO buyers. My fave Chardonnay is Kendall-Jackson which usually sells for $14.99 here in most liquor stores and maybe $12.99 if it's "on sale." Fry's had it on sale for $5.99 a bottle with a 6-bottle purchase. You'll never see a price like that here - not until COLO law changes to allow the supermarkets to sell the stuff.
We might see the legislature throw the mom and pop liquor stores a bone to keep them in business, which could be done by restricting supermarkets to anything with an alcohol content less than 18% while restricting hard liquor only to the mom and pop stores who could carry any form of alcohol, etc. But if the state throws out all of the current restrictions we can expect half to two-thirds of the mom and pops to close up shop sooner or later.
It's interesting to see the state protect this one form of mom and pop enterprise given that no one gave a damn when big box chains with tons of Wall Street money rolled up just about every form of retailing there was. There are just about no mom and pops left in the businesses of: office supplies; books; movies; music; kitchenwares; linens; auto parts; hobbies and crafts; etc. Then there are the tens of thousands of small retailers all rolled up by the all-time retail steamroller known as Wal-Mart, who've destroyed the downtown personal shopping experience in just about every small town in America. No one protected any of these businesses, but Colorado protects the mom and pop booze merchants; someone please tell me what's going on here...
What's going on here? Alcohol is a drug that we heavily regulate, kind of like Marijuana which is also a drug that we heavily regulate. It's not a book or auto parts store. I spent some of my teenage years in the midwest -with liquor and beer sold in grocery and convenience stores- and some in the Denver suburbs. It was infinitely easier to get alcohol as a teenager in the midwest than it was in the Denver suburbs. Because in the midwest unscrupulous convenience store owners would be inclined to look the other way because alcohol was only part of their business model. In CO you could rarely get into the liquor store without the guy at the counter summoning you over to check your ID because you have no legal reason to be in a liqour store as an unaccompanied minor so they could check that ID right off the bat, and if they lost their license they'd definitively lose their business so they had more incentive to check.
Although changing the law may drive the price of beer/wine/alcohol down a bit. As Dave points out that price may not go down as much as you think because of a regulation the big brewers love because it gives them a competitive advantage: our heavily regulated distribution system for alcohol.
Last edited by robertgoodman; 04-01-2016 at 11:06 AM..
Reason: Added explanation about ease of getting alcohol that was implied
Dontcha just love it...the same people running their mouths for 'free enterprise' actually work behind the scenes to game the system for their benefit. I guess that's what 'American Exceptionalism' is all about, we Americans are exceptional at being hypocrites and greedsters.
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I moved from North Carolina to Wyoming 3 years ago. I regularly buy beer in Colorado. I need to examine just one factor to know that the current system employed in Colorado is broken. That factor? PRICE.
For example: when I lived in North Carolina I could buy Oskar Blues (and this was BEFORE they built their NC brewery), New Belgium, and Breckenridge beers at my local grocery store or convenience store (as well as at specialty beer stores -- which, I'm sure to the SHOCK of some on this thread -- manage to thrive in a state where you can buy beer just about anywhere). I could also buy Coors Banquet (brewed only Golden) for far less in NC than I can in Colorado!
Someone in the chain of distribution (not sure if it is retailers or distributors, or both) is making one heck of a nice $ markup on beer under the current system.
There is no way I will be convinced that it is cheaper to ship a Colorado product to the east coast than it is to sell it within your own state.
Although I don't get a vote as a non-Colorado resident. I would 100% support scraping all of their archaic alcohol laws and let the free market do what it does best -- promote competition. The winners in the end are the consumers of the product.
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