Conflict of Interest: Craft Beer and State Liquor Stores

A proposal in New Hampshire to sell and promote craft beer at state-owned liquor stores has grocery retailers speaking out against the idea.

January 30, 2013

CONCORD - A New Hampshire proposal to promote beer made at state craft breweries by selling it at state-run liquor stores is running into stiff resistance from a grocery industry trade group, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Currently, New Hampshire State Liquor Stores do not sell beer, but a bill that was heard yesterday in Concord would expand a State Liquor Commission pilot program that allows state-made wines to be sold at the state??s liquor stores.

"The liquor commission has not had a good history promoting New Hampshire wine," said New Hampshire Grocers Association President John Dumais. "How effective would they be for nanobreweries?"

According to the proposal, beer produced at nanobreweries (2,000 or fewer barrels of beer per year) and microbreweries (less than 15,000 barrels per year) would be sold in Liquor Commission stores "whenever feasible." But House Bill 275 moves beyond merely encouraging the sale of state-made craft beers. It adds beer to the products that may be sold in state liquor stores without limiting it to state-brewed products.

Grocery industry executives oppose the move and contend that if the state-owned stores begin selling beer, they won??t stop at craft beers.

"They could first try to capture the craft beer market and as that takes off, they would go after national brewers," Dumais said. "People would stop on the highway, they wouldn't go into the towns and go to other stores."

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