For the well-prepared partygoer, responsible or otherwise, buying alcoholic spirits might become a little easier this year:
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is planning a pilot program aimed to test selling hard alcohol, previously the domain of liquor outlets, in grocery stores. And one of the first tryout sites might be in the Eugene-Gateway area.
And for Eugene-area imbibers, lushes, tipplers, boozers, sots and responsible drinkers, this is good news indeed.
The two-year plan calls for establishing small sections — 500 to 1500 square feet, various grocery store sources explained — in existing grocery stores dedicated to liquor.
There are plenty of good reasons to support the program, too: During last year $111 million (41.6 percent) of the state’s $267 million in liquor sales went to public agencies. Planners expect each so-called pilot store to generate about $1 million annually from sales. Just six pilot stores generating state funds at the same rate would add $2.5 million for Oregon programs. Although it’s worth noting that the actual increase will likely be less because much of the revenue corresponds to liquor purchases that would be made at liquor stores anyway, even an appreciable fraction would add some much-needed cash to nearly barren state coffers.
There are (rightfully) some concerns about these steps toward privatization: Some research suggests that privatization of alcohol sales can dramatically increase alcohol consumption (per capita), but other research is more skeptical of the causation. The figure that makes perhaps the most compelling case that steps toward privatization are socially safe is that at least 32 states already regulate alcohol less rigorously than Oregon does. The policies of the 18 so-called “control states” — Oregon included — are thus the exception, not the rule. Moreover, social scientists Traci Toomey and Alexander Wagenaar found that 18 states “have changed some part of their beer, wine, or distilled spirits distribution systems from state-owned wholesale or retail systems to privatized systems in the past 27 years.”
If privatization posed any threats, they are at least ones we’ve already seen.
And, while the Associated Liquor Stores of Oregon has expressed some concerns about the pilot stores taking their business, the OLCC has at least partly planned around the issue: In picking sites, the commission sought “partner stores” that were at least 1.5 miles away from existing liquor stores.
At the worst, the usually draconian OLCC’s plan to privatize liquor sales should prove an interesting social experiment, if not a boon for alcohol shoppers.
If in-negotiation contracts are finalized, students going home to Gresham, Bend or the Bethany area of Beaverton this summer can expect to find more outlets in their area.