Tennessee’s lawmakers and lobbyists are gearing up for a booze battle in 2014 that could determine whether or not grocery stores can legally sell wine in the Volunteer State.
The upcoming fight, which in many ways will mimic ferocious annual clashes held in Nashville since 2008, will pit grocery and convenience stores owners, who wish to see wine sold alongside food, against the strange bedfellows of liquor retailers and alcohol critics, who prefer to keep the system just the way it is.
It’s a fight over thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in wine sales and an estimated tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Stonebridge Research estimates that grocers could sell as much as 5 million additional gallons of wine in the Volunteer State if consumption rises in line with the average level for southern states.
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