{"id":42492,"date":"2022-01-26T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/could-liquor-stores-be-a-solution-to-colorados-food-deserts\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:07:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:07:38","slug":"could-liquor-stores-be-a-solution-to-colorados-food-deserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/could-liquor-stores-be-a-solution-to-colorados-food-deserts\/","title":{"rendered":"Could liquor stores be a solution to Colorado\u2019s food deserts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bottles
Bottles of alcohol at Morgans Liquor at 1200 E. Evans Ave. in Denver. (Kathryn Scott\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If there\u2019s one thing Colorado has a lot of, it\u2019s liquor stores. There are more than 1,500 of them in the state.<\/p>\n

And state Sen. Kevin Priola sees them as a way to help eliminate a stubborn problem plaguing both Colorado\u2019s inner-city neighborhoods and rural parts of the state: food deserts, areas where people have limited or no access to nutritious food.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of inner-city parts of the state, as well as rural parts of the state, where there is no grocery store for miles and miles,\u201d the Republican lawmaker from Henderson said. \u201cBut liquor stores are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priola has teamed up with state Rep. Lisa Cutter, a Morrison Democrat, to introduce Senate Bill 33 at the Colorado Capitol this year, which would exempt fruit, vegetables, nuts and meat \u2013 as long as they\u2019re not in a \u201csubstantially\u201d processed form \u2013 from a state mandate that says non-alcohol products can\u2019t exceed 20% of a liquor store\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n

The objective is simple: give liquor stores the option to become a place where their patrons can pick up both brandy and broccoli, whiskey and watermelon, and scotch and salmon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t require them to do it,\u201d Priola said. \u201cIt just says they may do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly constitutes a food desert isn\u2019t agreed upon. One definition is an urban area where someone can\u2019t walk to a store that offers fresh food within 10 minutes, or a rural area where fresh food is more than 10 miles away.<\/p>\n

In Denver, the Elyria-Swansea and College View neighborhoods have been identified as food deserts. Large swaths of the San Luis Valley and Baca, Bent, Prowers and Yuma counties have also been called food deserts. Both are areas that have liquor stores.<\/p>\n

Liquor stores don\u2019t think the legislation is a shot worth taking \u2013 at least not right now \u2013 and that may doom the measure.<\/p>\n

They argue the bill could upset a complicated 2016 agreement they made with grocery stores \u2013 called \u201cthe grand compromise\u201d \u2013 that dramatically changed where full-strength beer can be sold in Colorado. And fresh food isn\u2019t an area where they see a potential for profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the wrong answer,\u201d said Chris Fine, executive director of the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association, which opposes the measure. \u201cThe reason that liquor stores don\u2019t sell those products is because it doesn\u2019t work with our business model. They don\u2019t have the storage to store these things. It\u2019s just impractical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine also points out that liquor stores are prohibited from accepting food stamps. Finally, he worries that the bill would only serve to benefit a few liquor stores, and that it might create more competition for his members by encouraging butchers and specialty grocery stores to get a liquor license.<\/p>\n\n

The bottom line, Fine says, is that liquor stores are not the silver bullet Priola may be looking for.<\/p>\n

Sen. Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, where Senate Bill 33 was assigned, did not respond to a request for comment on the bill. But the vice chairman of the committee, Sen. James Coleman, another Denver Democrat, worries the legislation may not be the right approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not opposed to the bill, but I don\u2019t think it solves the problem,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the real solution is to build some healthy options.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Colorado and Colorado Petroleum Marketers Association, which represents convenience stores, are so far taking a neutral stance on the measure, state lobbying disclosures show.<\/p>\n

Priola said he has spoken with Healthier Colorado, Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado, the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, Hunger Free Colorado and Nourish Colorado about Senate Bill 33, but there are no lobbyists for advocacy groups that work on food deserts or related issues signed up to support or oppose the measure. That may be a sign that Senate Bill 33 isn\u2019t something they feel strongly about.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Healthier Colorado, Hunger Free Colorado and Nourish Colorado either didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment Monday or declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of surprised there is a lot of opposition,\u201d said Cutter, the Democratic sponsor of the measure. \u201cI signed onto it because it\u2019s a creative approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Annie
Annie Oakley\u2019s Grocery and Liquor Store employee Michele Joyce takes a cigarette break in the doorway along on Central City\u2019s Main Street on April 27, 2020. (Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Priola said the alcohol industry naysayers are people who don\u2019t want to upset the \u201capple cart of a deal that was cut six years ago.\u201d And he fully recognizes that it\u2019s unlikely that all of the state\u2019s liquor stores would take advantage of the policy change if it somehow clears the big hurdles ahead of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they would at least have the opportunity to serve their community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He thinks Denver\u2019s Montbello neighborhood, which several years ago was labeled a food desert, is a perfect example of where his bill could be useful. There are just one or two grocery stores but several liquor stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the bare minimum it\u2019ll be, pun intended, a healthy conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

33 would allow patrons to pick up both brandy and broccoli, whiskey and watermelon, and scotch and salmon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[924,120,394,94,2336,15,233,439,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alcohol","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-colorado-state-officials","tag-colorado-state-senate","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-food-drink","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85357,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42492\/revisions\/85357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42492"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}