According to a poll conducted in June, first-term Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a 22% approval rating among members of her congressional district, many of whom are still bitter about her costing the community 25,000 new jobs by helping to quash a deal with Amazon.
Demonstrating that she learns nothing from her mistakes, the freshman congresswoman is at it again. This time she is fighting to block Total Wines & More, a giant alcohol retail chain from opening a store in her district, the Queens, N.Y. neighborhood of College Point.
The retailer, Total Wine & More, operates 199 superstores across 23 states and employs approximately 4,000 people. According to its website, it carries 8,000 varieties of wine, 3,000 kinds of spirits, and 2,500 brands of beer. The Queens location will be the first in New York City and will probably attract consumers (and tax dollars!) from a broad area — unless the job-killing Ocasio-Cortez gets her way.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
A new poll shows @AOC's constituents wanted Amazon in their district, proving once again she cares more about representing the professional, progressive left than her own constituents. https://t.co/kfmE9RRFO1
— New York GOP (@NewYorkGOP) April 10, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to state Liquor Authority Chairman Vincent Bradley asking him to nix granting a liquor license to Total Wine & More because its rock-bottom prices would undercut smaller neighborhood liquor merchants. This was the same wrong-headed argument she used to chase Amazon out of the community.
“My district enjoys many of the benefits of a vibrant small business economy: job creation for and by community members, socio-economic mobility for immigrants and new Americans, and long-lasting relationships between proprietors and their customers,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the Sept. 17 letter to Bradley, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Post. She added:
I am deeply concerned about the potential impacts that MCT Fine Wine & Spirits would have on the local small business community. As a large retailer with ties to a billion dollar nationwide chain, Total Wines has access to resources and economies of scale with which smaller retailers could not compete.
Ocasio-Cortez closed her letter saying, “In order to support our small businesses, I humbly state my opposition to MCT Fine Wine & Spirit’s application to operate a retail liquor establishment in Collegepoint [sic], NY.”
New York State law is different from others. Instead of the state’s licensing an entire chain, each location in the chain must apply for its own liquor license.
Total Wine opened a Long Island store in Westbury in 2017. but state liquor regulators denied applications in Stony Brook and Westchester following a firestorm of opposition from local liquor merchants and the New York State Retailers Alliance.
The smaller cooze merchants support Ocasio-Cortez, but while many other support the opening of the Total Wines & More store.
Entrepreneur behind planned Flushing Total Wine & More store gains support of Queens lawmakers and groups: https://t.co/Ht3WB7cHBw pic.twitter.com/kyPTP03Pef
— TimesLedger (@TimesLedger) September 13, 2019
According to Queens news website QNS, Michelle, Trone the entrepreneur who has applied to open the Total Wine & More store in Flushing, is committed to partnering with the local community and peacefully co-existing with mom-and-pop businesses.
“It’s a different business model. My store will be the kind of place where customers will come three to six times a year to stock up for an occasion, parties, holidays or an event,” Trone said. “For a local Friday night, where they just want to pick up a bottle of wine, they’ll still go to their local mom-and-pop. Whenever a Whole Foods or grocery opens up, the local bodega doesn’t go out of business; they’re for different uses.”
Trone added, “I believe the community in Queens needs both of these types of stores. There is also, historically, looking at other Total Wines before and after they open, the number of stores around it do not go out of business. People aren’t going to drive further to buy one bottle of Chardonnay, but they’ll probably drive further away for five cases.”
Trone plans to open two stores side by side — one licensed to sell wine and spirits (9,000-plus and 4,500-plus liquor items) and the other to sell beer and New York state food products (1,400-plus New York state wines, 350-plus New York state spirits and 50-plus New York state ciders) — to offer customers a convenient experience.
A few years ago, when Walmart announced plans to move into my neighborhood, there were similar protests from local stores and liberal politicians. When the store opened, not a single smaller store went out of business.
Once again Ocasio-Cortez is rushing to hold her hand in the flame to see if it burns this time.
Cross posted at The Lid
