Supporters optimistic this is the year for beer and wine in Maryland grocery stores

This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.

A renewed effort to expand alcohol sales beyond liquor stores has the backing of a powerful new ally — Gov. Wes Moore (D) told Maryland Matters that he “wants something on my desk at the end of the session.”

The General Assembly has tried before to allow alcohol sales in grocery stores — and perhaps other retailers. Moore said that while he will not make the bill an official part of his 2025 legislative package, his office will push for passage of a bill in the coming session.

“I think it’s time to address this issue because it’s something that I have heard literally in every single corner of the state from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. From Oakland, Ocean City, Montgomery County and everywhere in between,” Moore said. “This is an issue that people are asking about.”

Supporters point to surveys that show overwhelming support for allowing such sales, which would bring Maryland in line with laws in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. Besides being convenient for consumers, supporters see the change as an economic benefit, an employment and revenue generator for the state and a potential solution to food deserts.

But opponents appear steadfast in their criticism of expanded alcohol sales, which they say will further burden communities that already suffer from a disproportionate number of licensed alcohol retailers, or drive mom-and-pop stores out of business.

“I know the Maryland families and small businesses that run the independent stores are going to be very disheartened to hear that the governor has sided with these big corporate supermarkets without even hearing from them directly,” said Jack Milani, owner of Monaghan’s Pub in western Baltimore County and legislative co-chair of the Maryland Licensed Beverage Association. “This is going to put some independents who put their life savings into their stores out of business, and you can bank on that.”

House Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), long a critic of bills to expand alcohol sales, said that, “Overall, bringing a vice — i.e. more liquor — into my community is never a great thing.” While he understands the public support for expanded sales, and welcome a discussion, Wilson said that anything that brings more alcohol into Black communities that “for decades, have just been punished by excessive amounts of liquor” remains a “grave concern.”

And it’s unclear if other lawmakers are ready to join the governor. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) said he is willing to consider a change, but that both sides need to come to a consensus and “at the moment I don’t see a path.”

The issue, he said, is protecting existing small business license holders while opening the door to competition to larger companies with greater buying power.

“The issue is the impact on small business owners in Maryland and not being overwhelmed by large corporate grocers,” he said.

Moore’s stance runs headlong into what has so far been an intractable debate, but he said it’s a debate that needs to end.

“I’ve asked my team, and I just continue to get, ‘This is the way it’s always been,’ and that is never a satisfactory answer for me,” Moore said.

Maryland ‘out of step’ with country

Maryland is one of five states, including Alaska, Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island, where it is currently not legal to buy beer, wine or liquor except in a liquor or packaged goods store, according to the Maryland Retailers Association, which backs expansion.

“We’re out of step with the rest of the country,” Moore said.

Maryland’s current law was implemented in 1978. At the time, some stores were already selling alcohol, including distilled spirits, and were allowed to continue to do so. Today, about 30 grocery or convenience stores continue to sell beer and wine and in some cases liquor.

Supporters say expanding the law would be widely popular. Online polls conducted in November for Blended Public Affairs found that 60% of respondents in Prince George’s County favored expanding the list of merchants who can sell alcohol, compared to nearly 30% who opposed the idea. In Baltimore County, 66% favored allowing beer and wine sales in grocery stores while 21% opposed. The polls have a margin of error of 4.9%.

“The support is absolutely there,” said Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Association.

“When you poll this issue, it is amongst the highest polling and support that I’ve ever seen,” Locklair said. “When you poll and ask people, ‘Do you want to be able to purchase beer and wine in a grocery store?’ it’s almost 80% of Marylanders across the board, demographically, age, sex, Democrat, Republican.”

The debate is not new in Maryland. Over the years, lawmakers have tried and failed to make a change, but supporters are approaching the 2025 session with renewed optimism.

Del. Marlon Amprey (D-Baltimore) was lead sponsor of a bill last year that would have let grocery stores buy existing licenses and then sell beer and wine only. While details are still being hammered out, he said he will sponsor a similar bill this year in the House. Sen. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore) said he will sponsor companion legislation in the Senate.

Food deserts and alcohol access

Amprey said his bill can alleviate food deserts in underserved communities, by allowing grocery stores to make the profit they need to survive.

“I think the real thing this will help with is ensuring that those grocery stores in Black and brown communities and impoverished communities in those food deserts have a way to create a better profit margin so they can sustain themselves and keep fresh food available for those who need it the most,” he said.

Amprey said it would help grocery stores “with their bottom line, that they could have a higher profit margin and take some losses that happen in the first two or three years with fresh groceries. They can take on those losses because they’ll be able to sell beer and wine.”

Traditional grocery stores were not the only retail outlets that could have qualified to sell beer and wine under the 2024 version of the bill, which would have let stores with a minimum of 3,200 square-feet — about the size of a traditional convenience store — qualify for a license.

Amprey said he wasn’t prepared to discuss changes in the bill prior to drafting. He did say it was possible that one provision — requiring stores to buy existing licenses — could be replaced with another allowing for new licenses to be created.

But skeptics doubt that more liquor access can solve the problem of food accessibility in impoverished communities.

“Black and brown communities are statistically awash in greater volumes of alcohol,” said Raimee Eck, chair of the Maryland Public Health Association’s Alcohol, Tobacco & Cannabis Network. “They have greater access to alcohol, cheaper alcohol, and suffer greater harms from the alcohol that’s available in their communities.”

Eck said research shows that increased availability is linked to increases in violence and emergency room visits. Increasing alcohol density is “how you increase alcohol-related harm,” she said.

“There is absolutely no research to show that alcohol can lead to any reduction in food deserts. It’s quite the opposite in that excess alcohol availability is in places where food deserts tend to be, which are lower-resource communities,” Eck said. “So, there’s definitely no research showing that alcohol access decreases food deserts.”

Wilson agrees.

“I don’t believe bringing more liquor into any community is a great idea. I don’t believe in easier access to alcohol is a great idea,” the Charles County lawmaker said.

“While I understand that this is something that obviously the public may, in fact, be interested in, I’m interested in discussion. I would like my issues resolved prior to anything passing the House and hitting his [Moore’s] desk,” Wilson said. “So, the governor can make his point that that’s what he desires. Well, I desire answers to make sure that we’re moving in the right direction.”

But Moore touted the benefits of expanding access, saying it might allow stores to stay in business or expand. Allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine is separate and distinct from the issue of communities already impacted by alcohol access, the governor said.

“Allowing beer and wine inside of grocery stores is not saying that we want to have a liquor store on every single corner,” Moore said. “I think these are two separate issues.

“I agree with the concerns that we have of not proliferating (licenses) in some of our most vulnerable communities … where you’re just, you’re inundating them with these measures of vice,” he said. “I actually understand that issue. I also don’t think that the conversation around allowing beer and wine inside of grocery stores is that. I think those are two separate issues.”

Wilson rejected Moore’s argument.

“You’re saying the areas that … are food deserts, which also happen to be areas that are high poverty, areas that already have a great deal of liquor access would be helped by even more liquor?” Wilson asked. “Again, that is not two different conversations. Those are the exact same conversation.”

A ‘perverse economic tool’

Moore said in an interview that he strongly supports the bill as an economic development tool.

“When you think about how grocery stores operate at some of the lowest margins in the retail industry … lifting the ban will also provide more incentives for them to have growth and continued operations within our counties, and particularly in areas that have struggled to keep large-scale retailers inside of their jurisdictions,” he said.

Eck called the expansion of alcohol licensees a “perverse economic tool.”

“An economic tool is considered perverse when it goes against the goals of the sponsor of the tool,” said Eck, who said studies show that the cost to the government to cover the economic harms of alcohol is larger than what is collected in taxes.

“So, I look at it as being a perverse economic tool, because it’s not going to lead you to the outcomes that you think it should or that you would like it to,” she said.

The effects on small businesses — specifically current license holders — is a mixed bag.

Small grocery stores would likely benefit from an ability to sell beer and wine, but current liquor stores and packaged goods stores might see a decrease in business, according to an analysis of a proposal in the 2024 legislative session.

That could have  other impacts on communities of color, particularly immigrants, for whom beer and wine stores might be “the last vestige of mom-and-pop retail in our community,” Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Montgomery) said.

“The Amazon effect, the giant box stores, Walmart, Target, have wiped out our mom-and-pop retail businesses,” Kramer said. “The last standing mom-and-pop businesses in retail are our beer and wine stores.

“I don’t want to see them also wiped out by having giant grocery chains shutting them down, because there’s no question, they will not be able to compete,” he said. “It will be just a short period of time before you see them closing shop if we permit beer and wine sales and liquor, whatever it may be, alcoholic beverages in our grocery stores.”

Kramer said policymakers have a responsibility “to our minority community and to our small mom-and-pop business entrepreneurs to give them a chance to participate in retail business.”

“They’re the ones who often — and this has been the case in many of our beer and wine stores in our community — new immigrants who go into business. Then they are able, through their hard work and their labor, to pay for college educations for their children,” he said.