Governor signs alcohol in grocery stores bill that ‘no one is celebrating.’
Hoping to ward off a bigger threat, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a compromise bill that will allow grocery stores to slowly phase in the sale of full-strength beer and then wine and liquor.
Logan Liquors in Denver's Speer neighborhood. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Hoping to ward off a bigger threat, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a compromise bill that will allow grocery stores to slowly phase in the sale of full-strength beer and then wine and liquor.
“You’ve got two evils,” he said Friday at a press conference announcing the decision over which he said he was “agonizing” earlier this week. “No one is celebrating this.”
Hickenlooper waited until just about the last possible moment to sign the bill, and up until the press conference started, many believed he would let it become law without his signature. When he first received it from the legislature, he said he didn’t understand it.
Hickenlooper said it was important that he sign the bill as a show of support for independent liquor stores rather than let it become law without his signature, and he praised the “elegant job” of Sen. Pat Steadman in protecting diverse interests.
Logan Liquors owner Lore Spanbauer behind the counter of her small family-owned store in Denver's Speer neighborhood. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
A sign in protest of the liquor store bill on Logan Liquors in Denver's Speer neighborhood. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Will it work?
It is deeply disappointing that Governor Hickenlooper signed this flawed and unconstitutional legislation that only protects a handful of big liquor stores and liquor lobbyists to become law. First the legislature, and now the Governor, have denied Coloradan consumers what they want and deserve: real beer AND wine in grocery stores.