Sen. Skoufis Retail-to-Retail Bill Signed Into Law

Senator James Skoufis (D-Orange County) and Assemblymember Al Stirpe (D-North Syracuse) announced their bill allowing bars and restaurants to make purchases from their local liquor store has been signed into law. This legislation, S.409A/A.7467B, ends an anti-business aspect of the state’s prohibition-era alcohol and beverage control laws, and will permit on-premises retail licensees to make purchases directly from liquor stores – rather than distributors – of up to six bottles of wine and liquor per week.

Currently, when a restaurant or bar runs out of a certain bottle – during a busy holiday rush, for instance – the only legal option available to them is to wait for their next distributor shipment, which could take days or even weeks. Restaurants and bars have long advocated for this important reform that their state association estimates would save small businesses $5,000 to $10,000 per year from surcharges imposed by large distributors.
“Restaurants and taverns are critical to our communities’ economic vitality and we should be doing anything and everything in our legislative capacity to ensure that the small business owners get the support they need,” said Skoufis, “I am grateful for the support of the Restaurant and Tavern Associations, who have been dogged advocates for their members. I’m proud to have carried this legislation alongside Assemblymember Stirpe, and deeply gratified to see it enshrined into law.”

“When considering what changes we might consider making in 2025, I asked: what would make the biggest difference for our smallest businesses?” said Assemblymember Stirpe. “The answer I got over and over was Retail to Retail. The small restaurants and taverns just don’t have the storage space to hold lots of inventory, so the chances of them running out of any particular bottle is very high. This hurts the businesses in two ways – it disappoints the customer and reduces the revenue that the business could earn. This legislation will end up being a win for everyone. The customer gets what they want, the restaurant or tavern makes their sale, the liquor store makes a sale, and the wholesaler sells another bottle to the liquor store.”

“Small restaurants, bars, and taverns can breathe a sigh of relief now that they’ll be allowed to purchase six bottles of liquor or wine a week from a liquor store,” said Scott Wexler, Executive Director of the Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association. “No longer will our members risk a liquor law violation, typically a fine of thousands of dollars, if they run out of product between deliveries and go down to the liquor store to replenish their stock. This is another sensible change to the state’s alcoholic beverage control law that Senator Skoufis, Assemblyman Stirpe, SLA Chair Fan, and Governor Hochul have partnered to advance, to the benefit of our members and their customers in just the past few years.”

The legislation will go into effect Thursday, March 5, ninety days after the Governor signed the bill into law.