DENVER -- Denver area grocery- and convenience-store retailers launched their long-anticipated ballot-initiative campaign today to allow grocers and conveniences stores to sell full-strength beer and wine, according to a report in the Denver Business Journal.
Proponents calling themselves "Your Choice Colorado" are officially requesting a statutory change that would be decided on the 2016 statewide ballot, though they have not ruled out attempting to get the law passed through the Legislature next year, as well, Trey Rogers, an attorney for the campaign, told the Business Journal.
If elected officials remain uninterested in changing the law to permit grocers and convenience stores to sell beer greater than 3.2% alcohol by volume—a proposition that failed to get the approval of the General Assembly six times between 1990 and 2013—then the group will move forward with taking it directly to the people.
Backers say more and more Colorado consumers, especially the significant number who have moved to the Centennial State from other states over the past decade, want the convenience of buying locally made beer when they shop for groceries. Current state rules permit just one license to sell full-strength beer, wine and spirits per person or corporation, meaning that chains have just one location in all of Colorado where they can operate a completely stocked liquor aisle.
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