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Wine in grocery stores will not be cheaper
When wine shows up on grocery shelves on July one in Tennessee you may not see a reduction in price, thanks to the Tennessee legislature. But there will be the convenience of grocery shopping. Because of the way the law was written, each grocery store must operate independently when buying wine, so chains such as Food City can't use their bulk purchasing power to bargain for lower prices. In fact, some local wine sellers believe they will still have an edge on buying in bulk. Liquor stores have opposed allowing grocery stores to sell wine for many years, but a compromise was reached in the General Assembly that included the provision that each store must order its own inventory. "The liquor stores were very afraid of having to go up against giant corporations and wanted to split up their efforts as much as they possibly could," according to Rob Ikard, the president and CEO of the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience Store Association. In addition, state lawmakers passed a provision requiring anyone selling wine to set the retail price at least 20 percent above the wholesale price. Steven C. Smith, president and chief executive officer for Food City Food Stores, agrees with Ikard. "It's not exactly the free enterprise system I grew up with." Smith says wine and tobacco are the only products in his store where he is required to set a minimum price. "We can't use our volume to lower the price to make the [liquor stores] uncompetitive," he said. "We can't get a better deal for the consumer, but we do it for cheese and milk and bread." Stores will however be able to offer a discount price on the sale of cases of wine.
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