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Wine-in-grocery-stores debate: claims vs. facts

Tennessee is having the most important debate for wine lovers…will they allow wine to be sold in grocery stores???  Luckily, Virginia doesn’t have this problem.  We sell wine and beer in the grocery store and leave the hard liquor for the ABC store.  It’s easy to understand the arguments both for and against this issue…and of course, change is always hard.  However, wine is becoming a cultural phenomenon around the country.  America’s wine industry is booming, and the convenience of picking up a bottle of wine with dinner is something Virginians certainly wouldn’t be able to live without.

However, “Convenience and grocery stores aren’t as diligent in checking identification, so selling wine there will increase underage drinking.” This seems to be the thought process of a Nashville psychiatrist who specializes in addiction. Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork has been outspoken against bringing wine sales to food stores. Woolfork said his officers have seen firsthand the impact alcohol can have on underage drinkers. He believes the measure would worsen the problem. “The fact that you have more convenience stores selling more wine,” he said, “the more underage are going to be drinking.” Woolfork worries that convenience store clerks aren’t as diligent in checking IDs as other alcohol sellers. “Convenience stores have such a tremendous turnover,” he said. “Two words come to my mind, and that’s convenience versus public safety.”