Convenience-Store Beer Bill Wins A Round
By: Ed Sealover | Denver Business Journal
Colorado’s convenience-store owners have taken a step toward being able to sell full-strength beer.
The state House Business Affairs and Labor Committee approved a measure late Wednesday that would allow convenience stores of under 5,000 feet to sell an alcoholic product bigger than the reduced-strength beer that they now are limited to pedaling. The 7-4 vote came after other bills that would have expanded alcohol sales died two straight years in legislative committees.
Unlike its predecessors, however, HB 1186, sponsored by Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, does not give the same sales allowances to grocery stores, which are pushing a separate bill this year to allow them to buy liquor stores’ licenses.
And it also limits convenience stores to selling only full-strength beer rather than being able to offer wine or spirits to customers. Liston cited those two factors as having a big influence on a committee that rejected a bill to allow beer and wine sales at convenience and grocery stores last year by a similar margin.
Committee members heard hours of testimony from craft brewers and liquor-store owners that allowing convenience stores to tap into a product now available only at liquor stores will harm both of their industries and cost jobs during a recession.
C-Stores, Consumers, Distributors, Featured, Manufacturers, Retail
