Tell Connecticut legislators: Consumers Want the Choice to Purchase Wine at Grocery Stores

Connecticut residents should be able to buy wine where they buy their food instead of having to make a separate trip. Please join us in telling state legislators that you support common sense legislation to allow consumers to purchase wine at their grocery store.

We need your help! Email your lawmakers today.

About The Issue

42 states and D.C. allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. Consumers want it. The economy needs it!

For today’s time-starved shoppers, the sale of wine exclusively through package stores no longer makes sense.  Connecticut residents should be able to buy wine where they buy their food instead of having to make a separate trip somewhere else.

As grocery retailers and their customers work to recover from the pandemic, we believe the time has come for Connecticut to remove existing barriers to the sale of wine in grocery stores and enable food retailers to create more jobs, help consumers reduce their daily travel needs, and provide new sources of revenues for the state’s budget. Today the vast majority of U.S. states—42 states and the District of Columbia—permit the sale of wine in grocery stores.

Key Facts

  • 84% of CT residents approve the sale of wine in grocery stores. This represents a 12-percentagepoint increase in support for supermarket wine sales over the past 5 years when 72% approved of such a proposal
  • In 42 of the 50 states, grocery stores are allowed to sell wine.  If Connecticut approves the sale of wine, it would simply be implementing a program that is working well in many states, including New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts which already allow for the sale of wine in supermarkets
  • Connecticut state taxes, in the case of cooperative marketing, would net $1.7 million/year in 2023-2044, increasing to $3.6 million/pear in 2045-2080.
  • Allowing traditional grocery stores to sell wine would provide Connecticut consumers with much greater convenience
  • Allowing grocery stores to sell wine returns it to its traditional role as part of a meal, encouraging healthy consumption & increasing consumer choice
  • In the state of Tennessee, “there were less than 600 retail package stores before the 2014 law passed. After the three-year moratorium ended in 2021, the number stood at 691. Today, Tennessee has 740 liquor stores — a 26% in­crease over a decade ago.” (Tennessee Journal)

Connecticut Resident

Hear what Connecticut

residents have to say.  Watch the video.

@CTWineNow