The State House has given thumbs-up to the grocery-store beer/wine tasting bill, discussed here last month after e-mail from concerned Admiral resident Liz Wilhelm. At the time, she wrote “thank goodness none of our 34th District legislators support this bill” — but in addition to State Sen. Joe McDermott having voted for it in the State Senate (before Liz’s note), one of West Seattle’s two State House members, Rep. Eileen Cody, voted for it Friday. The other one, Rep. Sharon Nelson, voted no; roll-call links are on the bill’s official status page. A few interesting excerpts from the legislative staff report on the bill:
The pilot project is for 30 stores with at least six tastings (but no more than once per month) at each location between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2009.
The pilot project locations must be equally allocated between independently-owned and chain grocery stores. To be eligible, the primary activity of the store must be the retail sale of grocery products for off-premises consumption and the store must have a fully enclosed retail area of at least 9,000 square feet. …
Control of sampling will be by hand stamps. Tastings will not be a party event.
P.S. If you’re wondering about another bill discussed here — the speeder-cam bill – it doesn’t appear to have moved out of State House committee-land.
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