Another Retailer Lowers Liquor Prices in Defiance of State Law

Another major liquor retailer in Connecticut has lowered its prices as an act of defiance against the state’s laws that establish pricing floors for bottles of alcohol.

An executive with Stamford-based Bev Max told the New Haven Register that since Total Wine and More has lowered its prices, Bev Max felt it had to do the same to compete.

Total Wine and More also filed a federal civil lawsuit against the State of Connecticut last week arguing that the minimum bottle pricing laws are unconstitutional because they artificially set prices outside of a market setting.

Vi Patel, who manages The Brown Jug, a mom-and-pop style liquor store in Meriden, is scared for what the future might look like without the pricing controls.

“I’m sure these guys are going to a lot more deals because they are a much larger business,” Patel said. “We don’t have the capital or the room to buy the way these guys do.”

Gov. Dannel Malloy has been an opponent of some of the state’s liquor laws for years, saying he thinks they’re bad for consumers and bad for customers.

He’s tried on several occasions to scrap minimum bottle pricing to instead allow the competitive market to determine the prices for alcoholic beverages.

Malloy supports the fight against the laws but stopped short of endorsing the effort by Bev Max and Total Wine to simply price their products the way they want, around state laws.

“I think what’s in everybody’s best interest is either you properly challenge the law or you abide by it and if you believe that your constitutional rights are being impaired then you may seek an injunction. Lacking that, I think the commissioner and commissioners need to do their job.”

He added that he still wants to see the laws disappear.

“I believe we’re penalizing our state residents by charging them substantially more for alcoholic beverages than our surrounding states. I think we’re depriving ourselves of revenue,” Malloy said.

State officials did confirm that the Liquor Division of the Department of Consumer Protection is investigating the pricing practices of both Bev Max and Total Wine and More.

Republican State Senator Len Fasano, the minority leader in the State Senate, released a letter he sent to DCP Commissioner Jonathan Harris, saying he wants to see strict penalties enforced on both major retailers for their public decisions to defy state law. Fasano called the governor’s comments, “inappropriate.”

Fasano said Harris, has to, “make it extremely clear to all big box stores that breaking the law cannot and will not be tolerated in the State of Connecticut.”

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