Total wines Illinois

I can’t seem to find any information on something I was told maybe you can all help.
Is it true that Total has backed out of Illinois after being turned down in court to change current laws? More specifically I was told they took the state to court to challenge a law that permits only one store per person and were turned down as the court upheld the states law.
I am particularly interested in this as I am an owner on Long Island were it seems Total is taking the same course of action as they did in Illinois.
Thanks

Very delayed response but I will say that in Maryland, where Total is headquartered, it’s the same rule. Only one license per person. There are two Total stores in Maryland, one principal holds one license, another principal holds the other license. They have unsuccessfully lobbied for a several years to get the law changed. They did not lobby last year though. Perhaps they are changing their strategy to effect change, I doubt they would abandon their efforts but I don’t know if or how they will proceed in Maryland. Maybe they will launch a court challenge here. Note that one of the founders, David Trone, just got elected to the US Congress from Maryland. Congress has no authority to change state alcohol laws.

We have a bunch of Binny’s in Illinois (close to 40). Hard to imagine that the licenses are held separately, but I have no knowledge of Illinois law on that matter

It sounds more like Total Wine just wants one license per state, regardless of how many stores they open. A short cut to monopolizing the market where they can or Illinois renewal fees may be expensive. In CA, the establishment has to hold a license. If you own ten stores, you own ten liquor licenses.

20 off sale beer and wine licenses is only about $7K a year in CA, more in the first year for the background check. Liquor licenses are a different animal. Reasonable yearly renewal when you have one but $400K to get one is tough. CA issues licenses based on population and area/zoning. There are areas where no liquor licenses are available and to obtain one, you have to buy it from somebody who has one. CA has been issuing some extra On Sale Food Service licenses on a lottery system.

In Minnesota they just purchased existing licenses and have now opened about 9 stores around the Twin Cities. My guess is that if Total Wine is having problems opening up the Illinois market, it’s because some existing licenses (especially Binnys) are contesting their license purchases.

I would just operate under the assumption they (or many like them) will come to your city eventually, so begin planning accordingly.

Do they plan on taking on Binnys in Chicagoland ? thats a pretty big target. Binnys are extremely dominant and generally are the only major liquor store in most areas give or take a few independents that might have say 1-3 stores

They are crushing Beverages and More in California - destroyed Haskell’s in the Twin Cities (which wasn’t hard to do), and to be frank, how many “great” Binnys stores are there out there? 2? 3?

I’m curious why you say that since BevMo appears to be holding their own. Is this insider gossip or have you seen some actual numbers?

Even the Wine Exchange took a big hit when they moved into Tustin a few years ago. I have seen 3 million dollar stores lose 75% of their business, literally overnight with a Total Wine moving into their neighborhood.

AND - Have you been into a Beverages and More store lately? They are a mess. Have you been into a Total Wine lately? The are as clean as a Williams & Sonoma store - with never a bottle out of place.

AND - You have 18 Total Wines in California - some doing over 30 million dollars a year in business (with the worst doing 10-15 million dollars a year) and that dollar is coming from somewhere. Beverages and More are cleaning house because of the 20%-30% drop in sales.