Imported Lagers

In a battle that has pitted gas stations against liquor stores, and craft brewers against unionized grocery workers, a House committee on Thursday approved a bill that would allow convenience stores and groceries to sell full-strength beer.

The Economic and Business Development Committee’s 7-6 vote in favor of House Bill 1284 sent the measure to the House floor, the first time such legislation has made it to a chamber’s floor.

“Now, we’ll at least be able to have a debate that we’ve never had before,” said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, the bill’s sponsor.

Liston conceded, though, that supporters of the bill had “a lot of work” to do to get the necessary 33 votes for it to pass in the House.

Part of the plan could be an attempt to sweeten the pot for liquor-store owners. Liston added amendments to allow them to sell certain kinds of food and to own multiple liquor stores.

Three bills in prior years to allow convenience stores and groceries to sell full-strength beer failed, dying at the committee level without ever being considered on the floor of the House or Senate.

Under decades-old law, only liquor stores and restaurants can sell full-strength beer, while convenience stores and groceries are permitted to sell only low-strength beer, commonly known as 3.2 beer.

When liquor stores won the right to open on Sundays several years ago, convenience stores and groceries complained that it cut into their game-day beer sales. They have been battling liquor stores ever since for the right to sell full-strength beer, but the fight has drawn in groceries, restaurants and bars, microbrewers and, this year, unions representing grocery-store workers.

Several people who testified during a seven-hour hearing Thursday said they were simply consumers who wanted to be able to buy full-strength beer when they shop for groceries. Several women said they didn’t like having to bring small children into liquor stores just to buy beer.

But there was passionate testimony from liquor-store owners too.

“Corporate giants are fueling this fight,” said Kathy Lane, owner of Oscar’s Liquor in Pueblo. “If you vote ‘yes’ on this bill, you’re saying you don’t care about small business.”

Craft brewers have long argued that allowing chain convenience stores and grocers to sell full-strength beer will hurt them, saying the corporate chains will be less likely to stock the vast selection of microbrews that abound in Colorado. Small brewers say they now can make in-person deals with independently owned liquor stores.

Allowing convenience stores and groceries to sell full-strength beer will kill jobs at liquor stores and at more than 100 craft breweries across the state, they argued.

But this year, there has been a new twist. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 has joined in calling for grocery stores to be allowed to sell full-strength beer. Union members testified they had good-paying jobs with benefits and said the stores being able to sell strong beer would create more good jobs.

Under Colorado law, liquor-store owners are permitted to hold only one license, which is why big grocery and retail stores such as Target and Costco have only one location in Colorado where they sell full-strength beer and liquor.

Liston added an amendment to his bill that would allow smaller liquor stores, those 5,000 square feet or less, to have multiple licenses. And he added another amendment that would allow liquor stores to sell nonperishable food items such as chips and other snacks.

Liston’s bill would not take effect until July 1, 2012, which he said would allow liquor stores time to adjust to the coming change.