A couple of readers have e-mailed to let me know that there is going to be a Trader Joe’s in Tennessee… but in Nashville. Looks like the ability to sell wine in the stores is not the only issue… one reader speculates that Trader Joe’s believes there is the desire for its products in a city as unhealthy as Memphis.
Maybe we should push for a Trader Joe’s in West Memphis. It’d be right across the bridge, and at least they’d be able to sell wine there.
Another reader writes that the beer, wine, and liquor scene as we know it in Tennessee would drastically change if wine were sold in grocery stores. Big chains, he writes, would do business directly with the wineries, cutting the distributors out. The loss of the revenue to the distributors would hurt their ability to bring in other products, such as import beer above the 6% threshold that is sold as liquor in TN. So businesses like the Flying Saucer, Blue Monkey, etc. would be hurt by the change. So I guess there are pros and cons to both sides.
Back later with details of a charity event coming to Downtown Memphis this weekend.