Caitlin O’Connor (left) and Jed Jenny are part of a group of nine employees who bought The Wine Source in Hampden just two months ago. The group now worries about competition from big box retailers. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Jed Jenny and Caitlin O’Connor have been in business for themselves for roughly two months and now face an unexpected worry — a push for legislation in the General Assembly next year that could expand sales of beer and wine in Maryland.
The pair are part of a group of nine employees who bought The Wine Source, a Hampden retailer that sells beer, wine, spirits and specialty foods.
“I worked for Wine Source for 19 years, and it’s been a great opportunity,” said Jenny, who started stocking shelves and making deliveries for the store in 2005. “We’re all very passionate about the industry and our products and what we sell. We had an amazing opportunity when our former owner decided he wanted to retire and presented us with an opportunity to buy the business including a massive loan to pay off.”
Now Jenny and his partners are worried about Gov. Wes Moore’s call for passage of bill that would allow beer and wine sales in grocery and other stores.
The governor, in an interview this month, said the change is popular among Maryland residents who want one-stop shopping convenience. He said he also believes it will be an economic tool and help grocery stores remain in or locate to areas where it has been tough to make a profit. Moore said he wants the House and Senate to have legislation “on my desk at the end of the session.”
The Wine Source owners — and others in the industry who held a press conference Friday at Wells Discount Liquors in Baltimore — see it as a threat to their business.
“Obviously, our business plan and projections didn’t include Gov. Moore’s recent statement,” Jenny said. “It’s almost comical timing for us at eight weeks in.
“He (Moore) just hasn’t taken the time, and he seems to be intentionally avoiding our perspective,” Jenny said.
Jeryl Cole is a fourth-generation Baltimore resident and the first in his family to own his own business — Off the Rox, a beer and wine store in southeast Baltimore.
“We’ve been there for six years now,” Cole said. “If the legislators allow this bill to pass or the presented bill to actually go through, my shop directly will be affected. I don’t think we could ever compete with convenience stores — Royal Farms or 7-Eleven and so on. We’ll be out of business.
“I know that we created a great community in southeast Baltimore, and we are very invested in our community, where we live and where we work,” Cole said.
But a spokesperson for Moore said that expanding the places that can sell beer and wine “puts consumers first and ensures fair competition in the marketplace.”
“Gov. Moore announced his support for beer and wine sales in grocery stores because Maryland is one of a handful of states in the nation where consumers can only buy beer and wine from specialized stores—resulting in less consumer choice and putting our stores at a disadvantage,” said Carter Elliott IV, the spokesperson. “This is supported by over 70% of Marylanders, from the Eastern Shore to the mountains of Western Maryland it is clear people widely support this decision.”
Efforts to expand beer and wine sales in Maryland are not new, but the association that represents alcoholic beverage retailers has been successful in thwarting those attempts so far. What is new is Moore’s support — no governor in recent memory has been out in front on the issue, much less called for legislation to land on his desk.
Wells Discount Liquor in Baltimore has been in Joann Hyatt’s family for more than 50 of the 80 years the store has been open. Hyatt, 73, said she hopes to pass it on to her daughter Roxanne, who also works at the store.
She’s taking the latest call to expand sales as a serious threat because it has the backing of a governor.
Hyatt employs nearly three dozen people during the busy holiday season. Many of her full-time employees have been with the business for decades, she said.
“If this would go through — I’d like to think that we will not go out of business. I don’t think we would, but I won’t need half of my employees. I just won’t. Who do you cut when everybody’s been here so long? That weighs on my mind tremendously,” she said.
“I think so often about selling the business, but it is just personal,” Hyatt said. “I couldn’t put my head down at night, knowing that they were all going to have to look for other jobs.”
And then, as now, many lawmakers say they worry that allowing large retailers, with their beefed-up buying power, will affect what they say is one of the last mom-and-pop industries in the state, a business that gives some immigrants the ability to grasp their version of the American Dream.
“I worked hard to settle my family,” said Ashish Parikh, owner of Cranberry Liquors in Westminster. “We’re established and now my kids are in a college, and the fees of the colleges are so high at this stage.”
Parikh said if other stores could sell beer and wine “it is devastating for us, we would be completely out of business.”
“And it’s many more like me who are in this situation,” he said.
Lawmakers — including those in charge of committees that would hear such bills — and those in the industry said they were surprised, disappointed and, in some cases angered, by a lack of communication with the governor.
Jack Milani, owner of Monaghan’s Pub in western Baltimore County and legislative co-chair of the Maryland Licensed Beverage Association, said the last time he spoke to anyone in Moore’s administration “was last year when they told us they were cutting our lottery commissions.”