After decades of operating under antiquated regulations, Connecticut, the state that the Nor’easter Brewing Company is headquartered in, is currently reviewing their infamous Blue Laws. Although our state never actually ratified the 18th amendment, calling for prohibition, Connecticut is often referred to as the Blue Law State. Two examples of this reference include the lack of Sunday liquor sales which have been prohibited since 1933, and the confining serving hours of restaurants and bars only allowing liquor served until 1am Sunday through Thursday (2am on Friday and Saturday). Accordingly, drinkers are flocking to neighboring states and this results in fewer sales for
Connecticut establishments.
Governor Malloy is currently lobbying to change many of the current regulations to permit liquor sales on Sunday, grant permission to bars and restaurants to remain open until 2am for all 7 days, and ease policies for grocery stores that sell alcohol as well as allow them to market beer until 10pm. If 100% successful, other revisions to the law would include, small convenience stores being given the option of selling beer, as well as one person, or one LLC, allowed to operate more than only the two package stores now permitted. One other modification Malloy is seeking includes the minimum bottle and quantity discount law, which the governor is interested in eliminated altogether. Removing regulations such as posted prices, quantity discounts, and depletion allowances could and would hurt the smaller proprietors; this grants regulated price levels allowing them to buy alcohol at competitive pricing to the bigger box stores. If the removal is successful, this would also create great harm for the smaller craft beer brewers… more on this in another release, but it is NOT good!
The Governor recently reported that Connecticut is behind the times and losing important tax revenue because residents are buying their beer, wine and spirits across the border in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. We at Nor’easter Brewing think Gov. Malloy has several good points, and reducing many of these obsolete regulations should certainly assist with our states’ sales. Why the push back? It appears the local, smaller liquor stores and restaurant owners believe that sales will not improve, at least not to the extent that the additional sales will cover the extra costs of staying open. They also believe DUI incidents will increase. Lastly, but very important, eliminating price posting and promoting quantity discounts is NOT a beneficial idea, and would place the majority of smaller off premise stores at jeopardy as well as smaller breweries and wineries.
The legislation will be reviewing Governor Malloy’s requests in the current session and we will report results as they occur. We would enjoy hearing comments from our readers. These state government discussions are occurring now and we can incorporate your ideas into our presentations to the state.
3 comments:
Buried inside Malloy's suggestions is to eliminate floor pricing or bracket pricing as well as depletion allowances. If eliminated, this might result in a free for all cost / price reduction and completely reduce profit margins for the small beer brewer.! The small brewers are all operating under a tight margin and if the bigger retailers and distributors insist on reduced pricing in order to allow for volume, I would think many might not be able to compete. If the craft brewers start to loose profitability, they will go out of business and therefore reduce beer selections for the Connecticut beer drinkers. Not good for the brewer and really not good for the beer drinker! Read the suggestions for Malloy and write to your Governor and express your views! Please tell him this is bad!!!!!
With all the new breweries in the state, you and they should ban together and forge a lobbying group ... before it is too late! Sunday sales and later hours might help, but I would tend to agree with this blog - the depletion allowance would be harmful to the smaller players! Good luck!
Gov Malloy beleives the price of a case of beer could come down $2 to $5 per case if his revised rules are adopted. This could place additional pressure on the craft brewers, that already are challenged with margin!
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