WICHITA, KS ? Kansas convenience and grocery stores are seeking to allow full-strength beer, wine and liquor to be sold in their stores, The Wichita Eagle reports.
A bill has been introduced in the Kansas Legislature to allow the expanded sales, with a hearing on a tasting bill (one that would allow tastings at liquor stores) scheduled for today.
But Kansas Rep. Steve Brunk said he is skeptical that legislators would be any more amenable to the measures as they have in the past, when the proposals have been soundly rejected.
Brunk said if the bill comes before his committee ? Federal and State Affairs in the House ? he?s not even sure it would receive a hearing.
This is the fourth consecutive years that stores have sought to be allowed to sell full-strength beer.
A new QuikTrip that opened earlier this month in Wichita includes shelves for expanded sales of alcohol, built on the assumption the law will eventually change. Currently, Kansas convenience and grocery stores can sell beer and wine coolers that top off at 3.2% alcohol by volume.
Brunk said legislators oppose the change for a variety of reasons, including not wanting to harm mom-and-pop liquor stores and not wanting to make liquor more visible to young people.
The bill includes a moratorium of three years on new liquor licenses to allow existing store owners to adjust to the new competition or sell their licenses. Brunk doesn?t find that period sufficient.
?The real problem in my mind,? Brunk said, ?is that we don?t have a good transition period from one structure to another.?
Read more about state beer tax laws in NACS Magazine.
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