Don’t expect to pick up a bottle of wine at your local grocery store anytime soon.
A pair of bills that would have expanded beer and wine sales to supermarkets and other retailers failed to gain traction in the General Assembly this year, despite winning support from Gov. Wes Moore.
Neither the House nor Senate versions of the legislation received committee votes ahead of crossover, the deadline for bills to pass one chamber and move to the other. Expanding beer and wine sales is popular among Marylanders, supporters say, but many lawmakers dislike the idea and worry that it would kill small liquor stores.
“Why are we going to destroy the last vestige of mom-and-pop retail?” Sen. Benjamin Kramer asked at a committee hearing last month. “To achieve what goal? To ensure that billion-dollar grocery chains have the opportunity to avail themselves of even greater profits?”
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Madeleine O’Neill over at The Baltimore Banner
