About a dozen speakers expressed their views April 17 on whether ready-to-drink cocktails should be sold in grocery and convenience stores. The Senate Tourism Committee listened but took no vote on SB259 by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro. which would have allowed mixed spirit beverages to be distributed through wholesalers and sold for on- and 0ff-premise consumption.
Earlier this year, the Mixed Spirit Beverage Task Force recommended against expanding where consumers can purchase ready-t0-drink mixed drinks. Currently in Alabama, liquor and liquor-based products can be sold for off-premise use only at private package stores and state liquor stores operated by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, a total of almost 1,000 locations. Singleton’s bill would have allowed the beverages to be sold in grocery and convenience stores, which potentially would have put the products in more than 4,600 locations.
In its February report, the task force cited the high alcoholic content of ready-t0-drink spirits, along with their sweet flavors, as posing a potential danger to consumers if made as accessible as beer and wine. “It would be irresponsible for the task force to place these products in front of minors without rules and regulations in place for the protection of our minors and our store operators,” the task force concluded, recommending the beverages stay under the control of the Alabama ABC Board.
Under Singleton’s bill, the beverages could have contained no more than 8% alcohol. In 2023, the senator proposed a 12.5% alcohol content for a single-serving, 16-ounce or smaller containers.
SB259 never reappeared on the agenda of the Senate Tourism Committee.
RELATED MEDIA REPORTS:
Proposal to permit mixed spirits to be sold alongside beer and wine returns with compromise (aldailynews.com)
Task force puts mixed-drinks proposal on ice (aldailynews.com)
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