Grocery Stores and Cheap Wine

Filed in archive Cheap Wines on September 18, 2006

Are wines cheaper at your local grocery store?

Where I live, wine and beer is available in just about every grocery store, but this isn't he case every where. One reason for this is the fact that liquor stores don't want the added competition. There are some arguments that allowing regular grocery stores to sell wine and other alcohols will bring the price down for consumers.

I'm not sure if I agree with this because while I most often buy my every day wine at the grocery store, I also have priced it through web sites, my wine clubs, and regular liquor stores, and I've never noticed a huge difference.

In this article posted by Boston.com Business, they ask some similar questions:

The big supermarket chains don't seem to be as price-competitive on wine as their campaign literature would lead you to believe.

As they push for a November ballot initiative that would allow them to obtain more licenses to sell wine, the chains are saying package stores don't have enough competition and, as a result, consumers are paying too much for their chardonnay or merlot. Give us more licenses, the supermarkets say, and prices will drop 5 to 7 percent.

But a spot check of prices at several supermarkets that currently have liquor licenses indicate the big chains don't compete that aggressively with nearby package stores. Large package stores often beat the supermarket prices by anywhere from $1 to $5 a bottle. Smaller package stores were far less competitive, but still managed to match the prices of nearby supermarkets on some products.