The Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial staff and The Tennessean‘s Gail Kerr aren’t very happy with the Tennessee General Assembly right now.

Both lead their rants with the legislature’s failure again to approve wine sales in food stores.

GAIL KERR

“Wine in grocery stores might lure unsuspecting teenagers to spend their babysitting money on a dry, white chardonnay, ruining their lives forever and causing the world to run amock.”

Read Gail’s entire column

TIMES FREE PRESS

“That is unjust to consumers and grocery stores. It also proves that Costco made the right decision by putting its new store here just over the state line in Georgia…”

Ouch!

Read the entire Times Free Press editorial

P.S. That’s 31 editorials in favor. But who’s counting?

This about sums up the entire debate…

“I am all for free enterprise,” [Rep. Kent] Williams said. “but this could put some small-business owners out of business and small businesses are the backbone of this state.”

There’s not a lot more you can say about that.

Five legislators in the House State & Local subcommittee voted to kill an amendment that would have allowed localities to vote on wine in food stores. Those five were:

• Rep. Kent Williams (I-Elizabethton)
• Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville), chairman of the House State & Local Committee
• Rep. Ryan Haynes (R-Knoxville)
• Rep. Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory)
• Rep. Bob Ramsey (R-Maryville), chairman of the House State & Local Subcommittee

Those supporting the amendment were:

• Rep. Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga)
• Rep. Jim Cobb (R-Spring City)
• Rep. Tommie Brown (D-Chattanooga)

Rep. Larry Miller (D-Memphis) seconded the motion that allowed discussion of the amendment but abstained from voting.

The following are several clips from Wednesday’s hearing. The first two are from House sponsor, Rep. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol).

This clip is of Rep. Todd.

The final clip is Rep. Williams.

We are quoting directly from a letter to the editor by a liquor store owner.

The editorial April 7 mentions that wine buyers don’t want to “walk 100 more steps to the liquor store next door.” If this is true, I say, no wonder Nashvillians are overweight as they are not willing to walk to help offset the 150 or so calories from a small glass of wine.

Leave the wine only in the liquor and wine stores where it belongs. Let the winos drive to the door of the wine and liquor stores and walk in to make their purchases. Exercise is good.

Here a link to the entire letter.

The comments are worth the read as well.

Is it prideful to wish yourself a happy editorial? Does wishing yourself an editorial even make sense?

Whatever the case, today The Tennessean published the 30th editorial in favor of allowing food stores to sell wine.

“Give customers what they want — Wine-sales option is fair, good business” addresses many of the key points that we’ve supported all along.

The Tennessean also printed letters from Chip Christianson, owner of J. Barleycorn’s and Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association board member, and Rick Fischer, executive director of the Tennessee Drug Awareness Council. As expected, Messrs. Christianson and Fischer extolled the virtues of the current system while predicting that wine sales in food stores would have a huge detrimental impact on Tennessee. Neither presented proof of their claims, unless, of course, you consider “Unh-unh!” to be empirical proof.

We have looked into all of these issues to understand them and answer legislators’ questions. Here are links to our analysis of:

• DUI arrests from FBI statistics
• Impact of availability on alcohol crimes in bordering states
• Correlation between availability and underage consumption

In case you’re wondering, the opposition has exactly zero editorials in favor of the current system.

We’ve been at this for three years through four legislative sessions.

In the course of the debate, we’ve been asked to present a ton of information about the impact of allowing food stores to sell wine. Here are the main issues:

• Public safety — Is there any proof that allowing food stores to sell wine increases alcohol offenses?
• Impact on small business — Is there any proof that allowing food stores to sell wine will wipe out private liquor stores in Tennessee?
• Jobs – Will allowing this change result in net job losses for Tennessee?
• Underage drinking — Is there any correlation between number of outlets selling wine and underage drinking?

The empirical answer to all of these questions is, “No.” You can find our presentation of the facts on all four issues on this blog.

However, there is one issue we could not address with empirical certainty. An expert brought in by the liquor industry introduced us to this heretofore unknown phenomenon. If you’ve followed Red White and Food, you know that we are speaking of the infamous “street drinkers.” Our words could not do the issue justice. Watch the video and enjoy.

If you read this blog, it will not come as a shock that we are killing the competition on editorials. But there is no mercy rule.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal published #29 in our favor. The opposition still has a big goose egg on the board.

Here’s a quick excerpt.

“A liquor store owner told a state Senate committee this week there are “winners and losers” in the annual decision about whether to allow Tennessee grocers to sell wine.

Actually, there are always a lot more losers. Fans of Two-Buck Chuck are certainly out of luck. Trader Joe’s may never be able to offer its bargain bottle to customers in Tennessee.”

Read the entire editorial