If Hochul really wants to get rid of outdated regulations, start by allowing wine in grocery stores
The governor’s push to address affordability, cut red tape and help small businesses can start with the laws constricting sales of alcoholic beverages.
Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed state agencies to review and propose changes to regulations considered outdated, obsolete or unnecessarily burdensome. It’s part of her broader effort to address the state’s affordability problem and promote a more efficient government.
In our respective roles as chair of the state Senate Corporations Committee and as a member of the Assembly Small Business Committee, we are longtime champions of consumers and small business, and we are pleased to see the governor’s interest in making New York a more business-friendly environment and an easier place for all of us to live. It’s a chance to systematically improve the way New York does business, rather than merely trimming a few forms here and there while keeping in place policies that cater to special interests.
To that end, we have a suggestion for a place to start: Allow New Yorkers to finally be able to purchase wine in a grocery store, like hundreds of millions of other Americans can do in more than 40 other states across the country.
There is perhaps no set of regulatory structures in New York more desperate for long-needed reform than our Alcoholic Beverage and Control or “ABC” Law. Have you ever thought of how arbitrary it is that you can go to a grocery store to buy a White Claw, but you have to go to a liquor store to buy a High Noon, even though both products have the same amount of alcohol and come in nearly identical ready-to-drink cans? At the grocery store you can buy beer, but to buy wine you have to go to a liquor store. And if you want to make a margarita, you have to stop at the liquor store for the tequila and then drive to the grocery store for the mixer, salt and lime.
These policies no longer make sense from the standpoint of either a consumer or a business owner. They just cause the consumer to waste time and money and get aggravated. Meanwhile, new products and innovations have developed as consumer mores have changed.
A recent Siena poll found that 75% of New Yorkers want to buy wine in grocery stores, and 80% say they would continue to patronize liquor stores even if wine were available with their groceries. Further, they are even more inclined to back this change if the sale of wine in supermarkets would directly support New York’s homegrown wineries and agriculture industry…something it absolutely can and will do.
If we are going to tackle regulatory reform in 2026 and lower costs for small businesses, including liquor stores and groceries, why not take the opportunity to also make the consumer experience easier and at the same time help New York wineries? Especially under current economic conditions — with rising inflation and federal business “tax” tariffs that are devastating the state’s small businesses — New York must step up to help reduce red tape and rising costs.
The regulatory reforms the governor seeks cannot be done by executive fiat; we will have to collaborate on behalf of small businesses. We look forward to partnering with the Gov. Hochul in the upcoming session to bring innovative ideas to the table — whether that’s the negotiating table or, better yet, a patio table overlooking the Finger Lakes with a great bottle of New York wine.
State Sen. Leroy Comrie of Queens represents the 14th Senate District. Assemblymember Landon Dais of the Bronx represents the 77th Assembly District.
** Originally appeared in the Albany Times Union **
