AOC against Total Wine & More’s potential College Pt. move
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez is urging the
New York State Liquor Authority
(SLA) to deny a license for the
operation of Total Wine & More
in College Point.
Ocasio-Cortez, who represents
the 14th Congressional
District in New York City —
which includes the Bronx and
parts of Queens — said she is
“concerned about the potential
impacts that MCT Fine Wine &
Spirits would have on the local
small business community,” in
a letter sent to Vincent Bradley,
the chairman of the NYS Liquor
Authority, on Sept. 17.
The freshman congresswoman,
who fought against
Amazon from opening its second
headquarters in Long Island
City, said her district is
home to many of the 350-plus retail
liquor stores that operate in
Queens and Total Wine’s rockbottom
prices would undercut
smaller neighborhood liquor
merchants.
“My district enjoys many of
the benefits of a vibrant small
business economy: job creation
for and by community members,
socio-economic mobility for immigrants
and new Americans,
and long-lasting relationships
between proprietors and their
customers,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“As a large retailer with ties
to a billion dollar nationwide
chain, Total Wines has access
to resources and economies of
scale with which smaller retailers
could not compete. Total
Wines has a history of loss
leader pricing – selling alcohol
at or below cost in order to sell
high-end products at a generous
margin. Our small businesses
would not be able to compete
with such practices and it would
be devastating to the largely
immigrant community that is
currently employed at many of
these stores,” she added.
The SLA received an application
from MCT New York Fine
Wines & Spirits LLC on Aug. 12
from entrepreneur Michelle
Trone, who is seeking to open a
30,000 square-foot store at 30-02
Whitestone Expy., the former
site of Toys ‘R’ Us that has been
vacant for almost two years.
Trone is the daughter of Total
Wine & More’s chain co-owner,
Congressman David Trone of
Maryland. Total Wine opened a
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voiced her opposition
against the proposed Total Wine & More store in College Point.
Tom Williams/AP
Long Island store in Westbury
in 2017, but the SLA denied applications
in Stony Brook and
Westchester following an uprising
of opposition from local liquor
merchants.
While the proposed store
— which is expected to bring
more than 100 jobs to Queens —
has seen its share of opposition,
Trone has received a generous
amount of support from several
Queens politicians and local
organizations and she remains
hopeful that the liquor license
will be approved to open the
wine and spirits store in Flushing
.“
This will give the people of
Queens something they don’t
currently have from the assortment,
education, selection, and
the fact that I will be partnering
with the community through
charitable organizations,”
Trone said last week. “I think
overall, it will be a benefit to the
Queens community.”
Despite the early wave of
support, some politicians recently
changed their stance and
have joined the fight against the
proposed liquor store.
Business merchants and
members of the nonprofit Metropolitan
Package Store Association
(MetroPSA) joined
state Assemblyman Ron Kim in
Flushing on Monday in urging
local legislators and the New
York State Liquor Authority
(SLA) to reject the proposed liquor
store.
According to the SLA, as
with all applications for new liquor
stores, Trone’s application
must go before the full board of
the SLA for a determination.
“We expect this application
will be scheduled for a regular
board meeting sometime in late
November, early December,” a
SLA spokesman said.
SLA board meetings are
open public meetings held every
two weeks, in addition they
are webcast live and archived
on the SLA website. The board
consists of three commissioners,
one of whom is designated
as chair.
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Elected Officials:
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