Oregon grocers have abandoned their effort to dismantle the state government’s monopoly on liquor sales.
The Northwest Grocery Association announced Tuesday that it was withdrawing Initiative Petition 35, which sought to privatize liquor sales and allow stores over 4,000 square feet to stock liquor. Today, only state-regulated liquor stores are allowed to sell spirits.
The withdrawal was first reported by Willamette Week, which reported the grocers blamed challenges related to the pandemic and court delays in certifying ballot language, which left little time for signature gathering.
Amanda Dalton, president and CEO of Northwest Group Association, said in a statement that her group remains “committed to our customers who want more choice in where they can purchase what they want to buy.”
“This decision will no doubt be received with relief by members of the OLCC state-run liquor stores and their supporters, but Oregonians continue to lose their time and tax dollars to an out-of-date and unnecessary liquor control system,” Dalton said.
The grocery lobby had raised more than $587,000 to get a measure on the November 2022 ballot.
It was the grocers’ third failed attempt to put a measure allowing its members to sell booze on the ballot; neither of the others netted enough signatures to do so.
In 2014, for example, the trade group dropped its signature drive after running into political headwinds due to studies that showed Washington liquor prices had tended to increase, not decrease, after voters privatized liquor sales starting in June 2012.
Oregon’s beer and wine distributors opposed the proposal, as did the state teachers union, small distillers and the union that represents state liquor warehouse workers.
Tuesday’s announcement was welcomed by local craft distillers and brewers based in Oregon.
The Keep It Local coalition, which opposed the proposed measure, said in a statement that the proposal “would have replaced our current system with a rigged system created by and for large out-of-state retailers, at Oregonians’ expense.”
“Oregonians can clearly see through their scheme,” the statement read. “The retailers realized after a month and more than a hundred thousand dollars spent toward attempting to gather signatures that it was best to avoid an expensive, contentious and ultimately unsuccessful campaign.”
--Kristine de Leon, kdeleon@oregonian.com, 503-221-8506