According to reasoning behind the new proposal being floated, more wine shops would mean more sales, and higher revenue to the excise department. An explicit corollary not stressed in the reasoning is that it would add convenience for the customer. The chances are that the new shops would be much more conducive to wine storage and sales as the retailers are learning fast the importance of wine marketing.
According to the report in Mid-Day, an official reportedly said, "In 1973, the excise department stopped issuing FL-II licenses that are needed to open a wine shop. People who want to open wine shops in the city today have to purchase their license from an existing license-holder. But there are hardly handfuls who want to buy existing licenses as the whole procedure is quite expensive."
Another official added, "We hope that the proposal is passed as the target for revenue collection is very high. Additionally, we have been finding it difficult to meet our targets as the sales of alcohol has reduced owing to skyrocketing prices of liquor. Hence, we feel that this will be a good method to make more money." Although wine was spared, duties on liquor and beer was jacked up significantly last year resulting in slight slump in the premium liquor segment.
As expected, the existing wine shop owners haven't welcomed the proposal with open arms. One of them reportedly said, "The city does not require any more wine shops. But there is a need for more shops in the interiors of the state. Instead of thinking of opening more shops to earn more revenue, they should think on the lines of decreasing the rates of liquor." More shops may mean loss of increasing revenues due to increasing drinking population, though they are not willing to talk of the enormous growth of sales generated for the same number of outlets during the past 40 years since they have had a free ride.
Such step would be welcome by the wine and spirits drinkers even though the relaxing of laws has made wine available at shopping malls and grocery and provision stored, the most notable one being Nature’s Basket. There has also been a marked improvement in the marketing of wine in retail shops in Mumbai and retailers like Juben Wines and Moksh Sahani-owned Living Liquidz are known to have improved their facilities significantly and can be truly considered the new generation wine shops where wine gets special attention in terms of storage and service and creating awareness among the buyers, unlike the old wine shops which have been selling mostly liquor and beer. |