By Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr.
The recent government shutdown—and the disruption it caused to SNAP benefits—reminded us once again that too many of our neighbors live with the daily fear of not being able to put a hot meal on their family’s table. In communities across Baltimore, many residents living paycheck to paycheck face an even steeper challenge: the lack of accessible, full-service grocery stores that offer fresh, healthy food.
Grocery stores operate on thin margins. Like any business, they cannot survive without profit. When grocers close or choose not to locate in underserved areas, neighborhoods are left with cavernous, empty retail spaces that can remain vacant for years. Property owners struggle to attract new tenants, and residents must travel farther to buy basic necessities. Meanwhile, the vacant storefronts accelerate deterioration, weaken community morale and contribute to the cycle of blight.
Local leaders have worked tirelessly to attract grocers to our communities, offering incentives and crafting creative partnerships. Still, there is no single solution to the challenges of food access. But there is a commonsense policy change our lawmakers can make that would add a powerful tool to their toolbox.
Allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine.
These products are already ubiquitous in every corner of our city—especially in our most marginalized communities. And yet Maryland remains one of only four states in the nation that prohibit beer and wine sales in grocery stores. Large national retailers take this into account when deciding where to build new stores. The result? Our neighborhoods remain at a competitive disadvantage, and too many of our residents remain without reliable access to healthy food.
For years, lawmakers have considered—then rejected—proposals to allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores. Opponents, mainly liquor store owners, have argued that such a change would hurt small businesses. Despite overwhelming public support, the General Assembly has repeatedly sided with those opponents.
But let’s be honest about the tradeoff we’re making.
Many Baltimore communities have no shortage of corner liquor stores—some of which contribute to neighborhood challenges—while lacking access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other staples of healthy living. Academic research has even shown a link between the high concentration of liquor stores and increased crime in Baltimore neighborhoods.
By prohibiting grocery stores from selling beer and wine, Maryland law is effectively choosing problematic liquor stores over full-service grocers that can become community anchors. Grocers bring jobs, stability, foot traffic and the ability for a single mother to purchase all she needs to serve a nutritious meal without taking two buses to do it.
To be clear, there are many liquor stores across Baltimore and Maryland that are responsible, valued members of their communities. Those stores will continue to thrive—as they do in the 46 states that allow grocery stores to sell alcohol. Lifting the prohibition does not spell the end of small business; it simply levels the playing field and modernizes an outdated law.
If we want to bring more grocers into our city, reduce the number of vacant commercial properties, improve food access, and strengthen the economic fabric of our neighborhoods, then we must give grocers the financial tools they need to stay in business.
It is long past time for Maryland lawmakers to listen to the will of the people and update this antiquated policy. Allowing beer and wine sales in grocery stores won’t solve every challenge our communities face. But it will give us one more arrow in the quiver—one more opportunity to attract the stores our residents deserve and ensure that families across Baltimore have access to affordable, healthy food.
Maryland families are hungry for solutions. This should be one of them.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.