CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
April 06, 2016 05:40 PM UTC
31 Comments
Being able to buy a bottle of wine to go with dinner at the same grocery is an eminently civilised idea. But the fact remains that initiatives are more often used by powerful special interests than ordinary citizens. If money is speech, as Scalia types insist, then vox populi is just annother word for a big checkbook.
Perhaps one of the most civilized ideas is drinking 3.2 beer
Ever have a 3.2 Guiness? Nothing civilized about that!
Still want to keep my little mom and pop liquor stores, which would be endangered should this initiative pass.
Still don't see why we should subsidize out of state Big Ag interests that just want to increase their market share.
Still not in favor of putting another undue burden on rural grocery stores that employ underage checkers all the time, so that there is always one "over 18" checker to check out the hard booze.
Still baffled as to why we would want to actively encourage people to spend their grocery budget on hard liquor when alcohol is the most addictive and most damaging drug in America.
Still seeing through the "craft brewers love this bill" nonsense. Craft brewers don't love this nonsense.
Tyler Sandberg, Your Choice CO's spox in 2015, was Mike Coffman's campaign manager. A GOP hired gun. Why should we trust this campaign when it hires spinmeisters like this?
I am in complete agreement with you on this, mama.
I am a definite NO vote on this paean to giant corporations and the profits they covet.
Not me. Most existing markets will have limited shelf space for liquor so people will pick up for convenience but it won't hurt liquor stores where people can find a much more extensive selection.
Coming from metro Chicago Cook County where supermarkets have been able to stock liquor and have coexisted with liquor stores large and small all my life and probably longer I know this is much do about nothing. It might hurt the kind of little stores that don't carry anything interesting but they can adjust. It works fine in plenty of states.
As for the small grocery store problem with under 18 year old checkers, that also is no big deal since I doubt any of them lack an old enough manager who is easily accessible and able to keep an eye out in a small store because it's, you know, small.
I will be supporting.
under 18 checkers are a non issue. To sell or buy any beer in Colorado, you have to be 21 — not 18. It has been many years since you could buy 3.2 or sell it at 18.
I'm not sure that I agree with you, mama. First, we must remember that our current liquor code is a vestige of prohibition. Second, the liquor code is a regulation of the market which serves little purpose other than to limit competition in the market place.
I have done an informal survey of the liquor stores within a mile of my home. It is depressing. A majority are small "beer stores" offering only the national brands. These appear about every two blocks on the major streets. There is only one which truly supports the craft beer industry – Applejacks. It is the only liquor store with any serious wine selections. I'm sure stores like Applejacks will survive any deregulation of liquor licenses. If the others fail because beer is available in grocery stores, I'm not sure that we really lose anything.
This is not my experience in our town. We have, in addition to many neighborhood liquor stores, numerous local wineries and breweries. Our local liquor stores feature our local products..I am skeptical that Kroger and Walmart will be similarly committed to serving up our local bounty.
I live near the one Safeway allowed to have on site liquor and that was built with an extensive space for it (which won't be the case in existing stores that will only have some space on an aisle) and they carry all kinds of great imported foreign, domestic and Colorado micro-brews and even some Colorado wine.
Big newly built supermakets with large on site liquor stores will no doubt have the same policy just as the King Soopers and Safeways in the south 'burbs where I live are all adding more natural, organic and local foods because customers demand those things. Existing stores will only have a limited space and selection so nearby liquor stores offering the more interesting and local products will still thrive. It will be just fine.
And if it means the small liquor store I never go to even though it's the closest because all they carry is boring large company commercial stuff doesn't make it that's just the way it goes. They don't provide jobs that pay anything like what supermarket employees make and there aren't any benefits. They could go boutique and sell the most interesting stuff if they want to compete. If not, no great loss to the neighborhood.
Lucky me…I haven't seen one like that where I live. I wouldn't shop at a store like that either.
What kind of community do you live in? Urban, suburban or small town? Given what you say about the great choices you have in your many small local stores, they’ll be fine beause they’ll still have a much better selection for that market than large stores that don’t sell so much local product. It works that way already in many states with great local product and liquor in supermarkets as well
I live in Grand Junction.
Big town. Should be no problem. Plenty of all kinds of customers to keep all kinds of options alive. Do you get Paonia wine in some of your stores? Some of it's pretty good.
I am not a wine drinker, so I can't say for sure, but I will bet it is . As I mentioned, we are very proud of our local and regional produce…it is marketed all over the place here. We are very fortunate in that respect.
Don't worry. It will continue regardless of who wins on this issue because there is customer demand.
I'm with you, Duke. Our City Markets are at the mercy of what their warehouse sends them. They discontinue things that many shoppers like (this has happened to me a half-dozen times this year) but say they have no voice in what the warehouse (in Denver, of course) sends to them.
As you know, I work for a local nonprofit. Once City Market was gobbled up by Kroger, all the charitable donations go through Denver.
It will be our local wineries, craft brewers and distillers who will be screwed. I'm sure City Market would stock Fat Tire, but likely not one of Kannah Creek's fine brews.
Oh, yeah Gertie…the transformation that overcame City Market as they became assimilated was not in our best interests..
..this beer change is probably coming, whether we like or not….
I think you need a 21 year old checker now, Mj not 18 as you stated. It has been a long time since you could buuy 3.2 at 18. Anybody selling 3.2 now would need a 21 yo so this does't change if we upgrade to fulll strenth beer.
Mama, 42 other states have grocery and liquor store sales of beer and wine. And that includes California, Oregon, and Washington, which are where the majority of my non-Colorado craft brews come from. I think the small timers will be ok.
Whenever government "protects" me by forcing me to pay engorged prices to a special interest, it's time to call bullshit.
Please elaborate, V. I am not sure I understand….
It is pretty simple, Duke. As a consumer I weigh three things when I buy: price, quality, convenience. This outrages greed head special interests, who want the government to force me to buy from them at whatever price maximizes their profit.
In the existing case, let's label the high-powered, well-financed, liquor store lobby Greedhead Special Interest A. It has traditionally cowed the legislature which "protects" me by forcing me to buy from the liquor store across the street from King Soopers, where prices on the identical product — Bud Light — are much higher than at Soopers. All light beers are below three-point-two so this is comparison test you can easily do yourself.
So as a citizen, I'm screwed. But there is hope! As it happens, another Greedhead Special Interest — the grocery and convenience store lobbies — knows it can increase its profits if it is allowed to compete for my business. Call this Greedhead Special Interest B. It doesn't really care about my welfare any more than Greedhead Special Interest A does. But just as Adam Smith predicted, the invisible hand of competition means I benefit if the rival greed head special interests are forced to compete for my favor. Unless Greedhead special interest B gives me a lower price, better quality or greater convenience, I'll continue buying from Greedhead Special Interest A — as the state now forces me to.
Business is about greed — big business, small business, all business, otherwise known as the profit motive. Competition allows consumers to harness that greed to their own advantage. But when the state claims to "protect us" by forcing us to buy from a politically empowered oligopoly — and pretends that this ripoff is really for our own good — the hypocrisy reeks.
It sounds like your liquor store is a friendly, convivial place that is worth the higher prices it doubtless has to charge. There are two liquor stores within two blocks of my Capitol Hill home, plus "Queen Soopers" as the gays invariably, and lovingly,call iy. The liquor stores are over-priced and impersonal. King Soopers — staffed by union workers with decent pay and working conditions — is friendly, responsive and a positive force in our community. I'd much rather buy my dinner wine there than from the overpriced greed heads across the street. And as an American citizen, I have the right to make that choice.
Yes…you do.
I agree. But, the 3-tier distribution system is NOT being addressed with this proposed change. Prices will not go down.
So…you are saying brokers (jobbers) will continue to control distribution..?
The issue is convenience. If only a small commercial selection on a liquor aisle is offered in my neighborhood supermarket I'm still going to go to the cool liquor store for the better selection. But for convenience, not price, if I'm on my way home shopping for a recipe that calls for wine and I don't feel like making another trip I'll pick up a bottle with the rest of my stuff, cheaper or not.
I find the arguments against muddled. The supermarkets won't carry local micro brew. OK. So then you'll still have to go to a liquor store that does for that kind of thing. The cheap commercial competition will kill the small stores. Not if argument number one is valid since they can provide what the naysayers claim won't be available in the supermarkets.
Many of us living in Colorado come from states where this has worked just fine for generations; plenty of liquor stores, the convenience of the supermarket option and between all of the different liquor buying options you can track down petty much whatever obscure, small batch product you want.
Small towns with local and regional product available and locals and tourists to enjoy them will continue to have successful small liquor stores if they cater to those customers. If you're visiting Colorado's wine country, for instance, you're not going to want some blah brand from the half an aisle available at Circle Sooper. There's room for both great little stores with the most interesting options and convenience for when you're tired and just want to grab something while shopping for food and TP and go home.
SHOUT OUT TO DUKE When this came up a few weeks ago you wrote a nice piece about the liquor store you patronize and your relationship with the owner. It made me think of a Harry Golden column I read more than 50 years ago. Golden loved cigars but never bought them by the box. He'd pop over to a cigar store near his office and buy two or three, chat with the owner, etc. It was the human contact he craved, not the cigars. You get a lot of that in towns like GJ, and your anecdote stuck with me.
I think 50,000 to 100,000 is ideal for a city, giving a solid variety of services, etc., without sacrificing the small town sense of community. You embody that well, and I appreciate knowing you and sharing your views even in this little on-line community of ours. Golden did another piece I remember denouncing the interstate highway system which made it possible to go from New York to Fla. without even stopping in North Carolina or, at most, pulling to some sterile service island for gas and the same tasteless hamburger you get in every other service island.
Among other things, that means I absolutely respect your preference to protect your neighborhood liquor stores, even as I sigh that nothing like that exists here in Denver to protect. Argonaut has great prices and selection but I'm as anonymous there as I would be at bleeping Wal-Mart. We pay a price for our economic progress and too often it cousin the form of a loss of community. That's why I treasure knowing folks like you, even if only as blog buddies.
You are a class act,V…most of the time
…I sure hope we can put together a meet up you can attend. I will be staying at a Courtyard in Ft. Collins on Friday and Saturday nights during the Democratic party Assembly in Loveland.
It will be an honor to shake your hand.
I'' be at the convention in loveland and maybe we can hang in there.