Posted on 12/05/25
| News Source: WBAL
Baltimore, MD - Dec. 5, 2025 - A coalition gathered outside a Giant Food store in Locust Point on Thursday afternoon to launch a campaign to allow beer and wine in grocery stores.
Maryland Retailers Alliance President Cailey Locklair said Maryland is at a competitive disadvantage.
“Residents who live near borders routinely cross state lines into Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the District of Columbia,” Locklair said.
Maryland state Del. Marlon Amprey is the sponsor of the Alcoholic Beverages Modernization Act, which would allow beer and wine to be sold in grocery stores.
Amprey said he thinks about the single mom “who is shopping with two or three kids and wants to be able to buy an alcoholic beverage but has three kids with her and has to go to the grocery store and has soccer before that. It should be easy for that person to do a one stop shop.”
Locklair added that what many people do not realize is that “grocery stores operate on extraordinarily thin profit margins, typically between 1% and 3%.
Maryland is one of four states that do not allow alcohol sales in grocery stores.