Colorado: Push ends to allow vote on alcohol sales in grocery stores

Source: Denver Post

June 30th

A push to get a vote on selling beer and wine in grocery stores on the November ballot apparently has ended.

A memo under the Your Choice Colorado logo on Thursday instructed employees at a King Soopers grocery store that petition-gathering has concluded. A spokesman for Your Choice Colorado, the campaign headed by King Soopers and Safeway, declined to comment Thursday evening.

The memo also highlights the details of a compromise aimed at avoiding the ballot initiative that Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law June 10. After years of failed efforts, the ballot proposal prompted the legislature to pass a compromise in May that would allow grocers and major retailers such as Walmart and Target to add up to 20 alcohol-selling locations over 20 years.

The new law, which takes effect Friday, allows grocers to sell liquor, wine and full-strength beer. The ballot initiative would have approved only wine and full-strength beer, but it would have allowed all stores to sell immediately.

To sell full-strength beer, wine and liquor, grocery stores would have to buy up all the licenses within 1,500 feet in cities of more than 10,000 people, or 3,000 feet in smaller jurisdictions.

Most opponents of expanded alcohol sales supported the legislative compromise to avoid the ballot initiative.