Joe Henderson
It’s not surprising that the so-called “whiskey and Wheaties” bill that cleared a Florida House committee Wednesday did so by a bare 15-13 margin.
Any measure that makes it easier to buy booze will mobilize people on both sides. This bill is basically equivalent to one in the Senate, which would knock down the legislative wall that requires retailers to sell hard liquor in a separate store.
That’s how you get booze stores attached to places like Publix, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. It always seemed silly to me. Given that you can already buy beer and wine in retail groceries, making them go next door to bring home a bottle of gin seems antiquated at best.
The primary argument that allowing so-called big box stores like Sam’s and Target to openly sell booze would put small retailers out of business is not a good enough reason to keep things the way they are.
Jim Rosica of FloridaPolitics.com quoted state Rep. Tom Goodson, a Rockledge Republican, saying the small stores already compete with the big players; the competition just happens at another location.
That’s an inconvenient truth opponents of this measure have to face. In the interest of full disclosure, it has been my experience that dropping into a neighborhood liquor store to stock up for the weekend is going to be considerably more expensive than one of the bigger places. Fewer choices, too.
This is another one of those probation-era laws that are falling by the wayside. People of a certain age can remember a time in Hillsborough County where you stocked up by midnight Saturday because you couldn’t buy beer or wine on Sunday.
Trust me on this: You didn’t want to be caught with nothing in the fridge on a Sunday afternoon to soothe the pain of watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in those days. That didn’t apply to fans only.
I remember being in their locker room after a loss back then and listening to defensive coordinator Abe Gibron repeatedly ask a flunky with increasing volume, “Did you get the beer? The beer? Did you get the beer? THE BEER!”
Fortunately, I think Abe was able to shake off that day’s loss with some cold ones. If the messenger had given him bad news, Abe would have found a way around it. A flunky would have been driving to Pasco.
People will always find a way around these things, but they shouldn’t have to. There is a battle cry in Tallahassee these days against picking winners and losers. That’s what this bill seeks to address.
It’s time.
