Nothing to sneeze at

The Tennessee General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee estimated that allowing wine sales in retail food stores would generate more than $16 million for state government and an additional $11 million for local governments.

“We know a majority of Tennesseans support wine sales in retail food stores,” said Jarron Springer, president of the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience Store Association (TGCSA). “The positive fiscal impact is yet another reason for legislators to seriously consider these bills this year and not roll it into another study committee.”

Download the fiscal note from the Red White and Food website media center.

You don’t say

From a WATE interview with an employee at University Liquor near the University of Tennessee campus.

[The employee] also says if wine is allowed in supermarkets, then liquor stores will have to work harder to keep customers.

“They would obviously have to lower prices and get bigger selections,” [the employee] explains.

And why are these things bad?

5,000 Red White and Food Members

It’s official. More than 5,000 Tennesseans have joined Red White and Food to show their support for wine in retail food stores. That’s more than double the number of members from this time last year. Expect that number to grow significantly in coming days. Thanks to all our great supporters.

And, our Facebook group is nearing 3,000 members as well. Awesome.

Most Tennesseans support wine in grocery stores

An MTSU poll found that 62 percent of Tennesseans support selling wine in grocery stores in areas that already allow the sales of alcoholic beverages, as compared to 26 percent who oppose sales.

Full details at mtsurveygroup.org
Sean Braisted’s commentary

Red White and Food Blog Day posts

Tennessee bloggers have contributed greatly to the success of Red White and Food during the last year. We’ve asked them to designate today a special day to blog today about wine in retail food stores and why the issue is important to them.

Throughout the day, we’ll be updating the blog coverage (17 18 so far) as we find it. Enjoy.

• Bites Blog (Nashville Scene) — Start Wining: Red White And Food Declares Blog Day March 2
• Ulika Food Blog
• Sharon Cobb — Jesus Didn’t Turn Water Into Milk
• Left Wing Cracker
• Nashville for the 21st Century — Liberate TN from Oppressive Liquor Laws
• Nashvillest –Why Not Wine: Where’s Our Two Buck Chuck?
• Silence Isn’t Golden — An Argument For Wine
• Nashville Is Talking — Buying Wine In Tennessee Grocery Stores
• Tiny Cat Pants — Whining About Wine
• Liesl’s Confection Dissection — It’s Just A Little Whining
• Jess Moves to Canada – Why Not Wine, Indeed?
• Sallaboutme — Why Not Wine?
• News Coma — May The Wine Be With You
• The World According To Oatney — Free My Merlot
• Dance Divam — I Love My Wine Store
• Cabbage Babble — Psst!
• Cosmopolitan Conservative — I’m Pro-Choice On Wine
• Monster Mash — Grape Expectations

Well Worth It indeed

The aptly named Well Worth It blog has delivered a great defense of consumer choice. Unfortunately for them, we don’t have a contest for best blog post. At least not yet.

It is well worth your time to read the author’s dissection of arguments from our opponents, the Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association.

Our favorite line:

“So here’s the question: are the wine and liquor store employees adding value or not? Any government mandate can create jobs. Here’s one that we could try: we should outlaw self-service gas pumps because they take jobs away from gas station attendants. Here’s another: all elevators should require an elevator operator.”

Read Booze, Convenience and Consumer Choice in its entirety

Just Something To Think About

No state has ever reversed course after allowing wine sales in retail food stores. Wouldn’t at least one state have repealed the change if it had such a dramatic impact on retail package stores? We’re just saying…

Distilling the truth — our version

The Food With Wine Coalition is the Kentucky version of our campaign. We have shared information and ideas back and forth the last year. We support them, and they support us.

It turns out that our opponents are apparently sharing the same playbook -– the same nefarious playbook.

Do we invoke the mercy rule?

Daily newspapers serve many purposes. They inform. They entertain. And, they opine on issues important to their readers.

We’ve put together a chart of the top 10 daily newspapers in Tennessee. The first column shows the newspaper name. The second indicates whether that newspaper has published an editorial favoring our side. The last column shows whether it has published an editorial favoring the opposition.

It’s that time again

We are officially entering the second — and most crucial — year of our campaign to allow wine sales in retail food stores. We need your support more than ever.

You can do two things right now that will increase our chances of success dramatically:

1. Contact your elected officials. Go to the General Assembly website and use the “Find My Legislator” form if you don’t know who they are. Everybody has one Senator and one Representative, so you have two phone calls/e-mails at the most. Tell them you want them to “support wine in grocery stores.”
2. Refer your friends. Forward them this email or go to our new refer-a-friend application on our website. We have nearly 4,000 members. Our goal is to increase membership to at least 5,000 during the next month.

You can make a huge difference in our odds of succeeding this year.

If you want to do more, Red White and Food has added a number of new ways you can participate in the campaign.

• Join our Facebook group, participate in Facebook Day, and spark a conversation about wine in retail food stores
• Follow us on Twitter and join the conversation
• Write about Red White and Food on your blog

Our new website is also live. Check it out.

We have much more planned this year. If you haven’t already, make sure to join Red White and Food and show your support.

Thanks to everyone for their support.