Down and Out: Tennessee Liquor Stores Suffer Yet Another Blow from WIGS

Moments ago, the Senate concurred in a House bill that removes the 500 foot distance requirement between a food store and a liquor store that is not exercising the privilege of selling beer and other items.

We blogged about SB0844, which is a liquor Christmas tree, in legislative parlance.  For those that do not regularly haunt the halls of Legislative Plaza, SB0844 has 6 mostly unrelated sections that each revised a specific section of the liquor laws, which is known as a Christmas tree.

Section 6 of SB0844 galvanized the attention of a handful of retail liquor store owners and a few grocers.  These liquor store owners did not stock beer, chips, mixers and wine glasses  – with the specific goal of preventing a food store located within 500 feet from selling wine until July 1, 2017.  Johnson City’s News 11 recently covered the story.

All for naught.

A senate amendment that would have eliminated section 6, having the effect of keeping the 500 foot rule in place, was soundly defeated on the Senate floor, 9-19.  The bill heads to the Governor and should become law just in the nick of time for places like the Green Hills Kroger and Trader Joe’s.  We see Four Buck Chuck headed to Hillsboro Pike.

We send a very special Hank Williams shout out to our friends that own Grace’s Plaza Wine & Spirits, Bud’s Liquors and Wine and other retail store owners on the losing end of SB0844:

There’s a tear in my beer
’cause I’m cryin’ for you, dear
you are on my lonely mind.

Source: WIGS Law