HOUSE BILL 790 HURTS PENNSYLVANIAS BEER INDUSTRY We write to express our collective concerns with the most

recent version of House Bill 790, which is detrimental to the beer industry. House Bill 790 would result in the beer segment losing as much as 50 percent of the floor and shelf space within beer distributorships, which account for more than two-thirds of our sales within Pennsylvania. It also would establish hundreds of new Wine and Spirits outlets where only their products would be sold. Further, House Bill 790 would authorize over 11,000 new outlets for the sale of up to 6 bottles of wine to go, including restaurants in supermarkets. It also would create approximately 800 new Grocery Store licenses authorizing the sale of unlimited amounts of wine anywhere in a grocery store and, thereby, creating a very uneven playing field in the grocery store segment. And because it pertains only to wine, there will be supermarkets where wine will be the exclusive alcohol beverage option and no beer will be sold. Even in those supermarkets which have a restaurant license and thus are permitted to sell a limited amount of beer, the Bill allows for unlimited wine sales and for wine to be located anywhere in the store. Meanwhile, beer is relegated solely to the restaurant section and sales are limited to a maximum of a case equivalent per transaction. Additionally, in order to even sell beer, a grocery store must incur the ongoing expense of operating a restaurant - - thus giving the grocery store another reason to consider opting to choose a G license which would permit it to sell unlimited amounts of wine from anywhere in the store and not have to maintain a separate restaurant facility. To provide unlimited wine and liquor sales within distributors, unlimited wine sales within G licensed grocery stores, and limited takeout wine sales in restaurants and hotels while severely restricting beer sales in those same locations is not what the consumer expects or wants, nor is it fair to the tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians employed by the States beer industry. The Bill also would change the law governing the use of credit cards by licensees to purchase beer. Such a change would have the indirect effect of adding an additional cost to the system that eventually would have to be borne by the consumer. We ask you to oppose House Bill 790 in its current form and urge the House to consider changes to treat the beer industry fairly. We look forward to working with you to address these serious concerns.