Grocery and Convenience Stores Can Begin Selling Wine Today

Less than four months after passing with just 50.6 percent of the vote, Proposition 125 goes into effect in Colorado on March 1. The measure was one of three major proposals involving state liquor laws decided in the 2022 election; it allows grocery and convenience stores that are licensed to sell beer to add wine to their offerings. (A proposition that would have allowed liquor store chains to have an unlimited number of licenses and another that would have let third-party services deliver liquor as well as food did not pass.)

All told, around 1,900 stores in the state have been working to clear shelf space in preparation for the shift, including all Safeway, King Soopers and Trader Joe's locations. At the Safeway on South Downing Street near the University of Denver, both sides of a long shelf were empty on the morning of March 1, with cases of wine on dollies, ready to be stocked. Price labels were already in place, some offering special member pricing for Safeway card holders.

While the ability to pick up a bottle of vino with your groceries is a convenience many shoppers welcome, independent liquor stores worry about its effect on business.
In the same parking lot as the Downing Street Safeway is Morgan's Liquors, which has been owned by Jim Archibald and his wife for two decades. In 2019, when a similar measure went into effect, allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer, "Our beer sales dropped 30 percent" Archibald told Westword last August. That downturn forced him to lay off several staff members.

Now, Morgan's and other liquor stores, particularly those located close to grocery stores, expect to experience another significant drop in sales.

Shops like these are still able to offer some things that grocery stores cannot, however, including a much larger selection of specialty items and, of course, hard liquor. But that could change one day as well, which is something Archibald fears. "In 2024, I’ll bet you they’re going to try to get spirits approved," he predicted.

But in the meantime, liquor stores press on. And on March 1, cases of spirits were being rolled into Morgan's as it prepared to open for the day.