Consultant: Grocery stores should sell liquor through separate facilities

SALT LAKE CITY — The state should look at letting grocery stores sell liquor, consultants hired to come up with a new business plan for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control told a legislative committee Wednesday.

But the Bonneville Research consultants said the liquor operation should remain separate from the grocery stores themselves, likely as separate, stand-alone facilities in the same retail complex.

"We never thought it was appropriate to sell alcoholic beverages in stores alongside pears and apples," the firm's president, Bob Springmeyer, told the Business and Labor Interim Committee.

Instead, Springmeyer, a former Democratic candidate for governor, cited the state's Avenues liquor store as an example of an outlet that could be turned over to a grocery store to run as a package agency.

Package agencies are privately operated liquor outlets that share profits with the state. They are typically located in less-populated areas of the state, but the consultants suggested they be looked at like franchises.

The Avenues liquor store is located in a retail complex owned by Smith's Food and Drug, which has a grocery store on a separate level. Springmeyer said the state leases space for the liquor store from Smith's.

A spokeswoman for Smith's, Marsha Gilford, told the Deseret News that "Smith's would be very happy to talk about any ideas that would come forward."

She said the grocery store chain currently operates in seven states "and in every state except Utah, we sell heavy beer, wine and/or hard liquor in our stores, so we have a lot of experience and depth in being responsible managers of liquor sales."

Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, said he's already heard from a constituent who was excited at the prospect of being able to buy alcohol where she does her grocery shopping and would increase her purchases if that option became available.

"We want to control impulse buying," Kiser said, suggesting that could lead to overconsumption.

Another member of the committee, Rep. Brian Doughty, D-Salt Lake, said the state should be out of the liquor business and not concerned with whether he bought a bottle of wine on impulse.

"I feel like we're looking at a nanny state a lot of times," Doughty said.

Springmeyer, whose firm was paid nearly $100,000 for the business plan, said any such liquor outlet would have a separate entrance and cash register than a grocery store.