Feb. 28—Colorado groceries and convenience stores that added full-strength beer to their shelves in 2019 are about to pop the cork on wine sales.

Beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Safeway, Walmart, King Soopers, 7-Eleven and others can begin to sell wine — the result of Proposition 125, a hard-fought ballot measure that was narrowly approved by Colorado voters in November and authorized an expansion of wine sales beyond traditional liquor stores.

Grocery and convenience stores that are licensed to sell liquor — currently 1,877 outlets statewide — now also will be eligible to sell wine, Colorado Department of Revenue spokeswoman Suzanne Karrer said via email.

And most are expected to do so.

Safeway, owned by Idaho-based Albertsons, has received wine deliveries over the last week from wholesalers and distributors and employees will stock shelves during Wednesday's early morning hours in advance of the launch of sales at 8 a.m., said spokeswoman Kris Staaf.

Stores will carry an assortment of wines that will vary depending on the size of each location, Staaf said. But customers can expect to find top brands such as Kendall-Jackson and Kim Crawford, international offerings and local wines, all at various prices, she said.

"In Colorado Springs, we're not talking about building wine stores or liquor stores inside the store," she said. "What you'll mostly see are some shelving, some displays, some endcaps (with wine selections) inside our stores."

Safeway, like other retailers, says it's seeking to cater to shoppers who are pressed for time, and who might want to add wine to their purchases without a second trip to another store, Staaf said.

"Shopping habits have evolved over the years, and our customers have told us for years that they want the convenience of being able to pick up a bottle of wine when grocery shopping," Staaf said.

"If you're going to get a nice steak, maybe you pair that up with a bottle of red wine," she said. "Or you're having family over and you're celebrating for the holidays, and you want to be able to pop into the grocery store and pick up your groceries and then also pick up some wine or some beer. It really is about the convenience for the consumer."

Safeway has hired "beverage stewards" for many of its stores, who have gone through Albertsons' Napa Valley Wine Academy and will offer customers serving and pairing suggestions and advice on wine cultivation and how to store and select wines, among other information, Staaf said.

Walmart customers will find a wide range of wines, from Proseccos to Pinot noirs, as well as the retailer's private label brands such as Oak Leaf, Winemakers Selection & Reserve and Uno Mas Margaritas, Samantha Link, a Walmart merchant, said via email.

Walmart's wine sales "will create a one-stop shopping opportunity for our customers enabling them to save money, live better," Link said, echoing the retailer's familiar marketing slogan.

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But if large grocery and convenience store chains have prepped for wine sales since November, some independent liquor stores and mom-and-pop locations have dreaded them.

Voters approved Proposition 125 by a 50.6% to 49.4% margin after a bitter fight between large retail chains that pushed for wine sales and smaller liquor outlets that opposed them. Voters rejected two other measures — one that would have allowed third-party companies to deliver alcohol from restaurants, bars and liquor stores and another that would have allowed a gradual expansion of the number of liquor stores operated by one person or business.

Chris Fine, executive director of the Denver-based Colorado Licensed Beverage Association, a trade group that represents about 1,600 independent and mom-and-pop liquor stores, complained that large retailers outspent opponents by 32 to 1 combined on the three ballot measures.

Proponents said Proposition 125 was about convenience; Fine said it was about large retailers padding their sales. Many Colorado consumers weren't advocating for the right to buy wine at grocery stores, he said, adding that Proposition 125 was voted down in 47 of the state's 64 counties.

"All of these were large, out-of-state corporations who were just coming into Colorado for a money grab, pure and simple," said Fine.

When full-strength beer sales were legalized in grocery and convenience stores in 2019, several association members saw a 30% drop in revenue, Fine said. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 proved to be a lifeline for many liquor stores; the industry was deemed essential by Gov. Jared Polis and liquor stores continued to operate and do well, he said.

Now, the arrival of wine sales at grocery and convenience stores will be the latest blow to the association's member stores, half of which are owned by women and nearly two-thirds of which are minority owned, Fine said.

Some longtime outlets are well known for their specialty wines and spirits, highly trained workers and expert customer service, which will help them fend off competition from grocery and convenience stores that won't have the same expertise to provide to customers, Fine said.

"They focus on customers service, they focus on providing those products that the grocers won't offer," he said.

Still, he estimates that one-fourth to one-third of the Beverage Association's members will see a devastating impact on their revenues and some will be in jeopardy of closing their doors.

"Obviously, the grocers are going to really kind of look for these national deals, national brands (of wine) that will be easy for someone to just grab and go," Fine said. "Our position the entire time has been, it's convenient, but at what cost?"

Safeway's Staaf, however, disputed the argument that groceries and convenience stores will gut liquor outlets because they're adding wine sales.

"Liquor stores said the same thing when we began selling full strength beer in 2019," she said via email. "There are more liquor stores now than in 2019. We co-exist and will continue to do so with the rollout of wine. Liquor stores will always carry different products than grocery stores (and they sell spirits). Safeway sells wine in nearly every state we operate in and we coexist with liquor stores."

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