Push for wine with higher alcohol content in Mississippi grocery stores
By Summer Tadlock | January 28, 2020 at 10:12 PM CST – Updated January 29 at 1:38 PM
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – “We are the last state in the South to not have wine in grocery stores.”
Picture this: you walk into a grocery store to pick up dinner, next stop on the list is to grab a bottle of wine. But what if you could get it all in one place?
Elliott Flaggs is the chair of the Looking for Wine Coalition.
“We are working with legislative leadership, committee chairs, working with committee members but on top of that on social media we have a huge following. Over 6,000 Mississippians who support our issue.”
Now let’s break this down a little more and see what the biggest benefits would be for you at home.
“Accessibility, convenience, and prices!”
Not only that, some say it will also roll in a great economic impact to the Magnolia State.
“It would bring in 18-to-20 million dollars in additional revenue into the state without increasing taxes.”
But small town business owners like David Rushing say there’s more to this than meets the eye.
“One of the biggest things this will bring in is a distribution problem. Right now there are about 600 permittees in Mississippi.”
Rushing says it would be hard for smaller businesses to weather the storm.
“Add 200 grocery stores, you are increasing distribution but not increasing the population. I have wines here that you would never be able to purchase in a grocery store. What it all comes down to is service, making sure people want to shop at Joe T’s.”
The deadline to introduce bills is Monday, February 24th.
Copyright 2020 WLBT. All rights reserved.
