180 Stores in Westchester Ask Governor to Just Say No
The Metropolitan Package Store Association (Metro PSA), representing over 3,300 small, independent wine and liquor stores across New York State, is joining the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) to oppose legislative efforts that would allow grocery stores and supermarkets to sell wine in the state.
In a letter to Governor Hochul, 13 UFCW local presidents, representing tens of thousands of workers in wine and liquor sales, warehouses, delivery, food production and grocery stores across the state, steadfastly oppose legislation that they say, “will vehemently enable non-union operators to increase their market power while threatening union jobs in the existing liquor sales ecosystem.”
Thousands of local independent wine & liquor retailers across the Empire State have worked cooperatively with the union workforce for decades. In their letter to the governor, the union leaders say that supporters of the wine in grocery stores legislation illustrate a lack of understanding or concern for the union-represented workforce responsible for over 50,000 jobs in package stores across New York State.
In New York, there are over 3,300 small family-owned wine & liquor stores, each employing an average of 10 workers, with another 5,000 unionized sales, warehouse and delivery workers servicing these stores. The coalition of family-owned package store owners are fearful that the jobs they represent are at risk from supermarkets massive purchasing and advertising clout and big-dollar financing capacity.
“This legislation will destroy the union workforce, local wine and liquor store merchants, and in-state wineries responsible for maintaining every aspect of wine production and sale in New York,” said Michael Correra, executive director of Metro PSA. “The ones to benefit from this will be the billionaire supermarket chain owners, while working class New Yorkers will be steamrolled.”
“Just as these non-union operators refuse to provide stable, middle-class jobs with benefits in their supermarkets, they will leverage their buying power to drive down the wages and benefits of unionized wine and liquor salespeople and wholesaler workers,” said the UFCW presidents. “Enabling anti-union companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Wegman’s to leverage their market power against union employers in the liquor space will further erode the standard of living for thousands of union families.”
A recent analysis by the nonprofit Consumer Reports, found that many large grocery chains are price gauging consumers, by regularly overcharging for basic staples like meat and produce, with Amazon-owned Whole Foods found to be the most expensive grocery store in the United States. If these chains are suddenly granted the capacity to sell wine, consumers will simply shift their purchases of wine from liquor stores to grocery stores, enabling large grocery chains to have a stranglehold on sales and distribution, while profiting further at the expense of both union workers and local wine and liquor store owners.
“The supermarket lobby’s campaign to dismantle and assert over the alcohol control laws will create massive problems, and as the union clearly explains, will be responsible for wiping out one of the last retail sectors that have not already been destroyed by large, big box and chain store businesses,” continued Correra. “Wine in grocery stores will not increase overall wine consumption, rather it will take away sales from local small businesses and hand it over to major multi-billion-dollar grocery chains.”
