Wal-Mart fights to sell liquor

There is a battle brewing in Texas that is pitting the country’s largest retailer against a major state agency and an entrenched liquor industry, and it is a war in which the courts and the Legislature are likely to be final arbiters.

Wal-Mart, also the nation’s biggest private employer, wants to sell liquor in free-standing stores next to its existing big-box retail operations. Under state law, publicly traded companies are prohibited from owning liquor stores.

This month the company filed a lawsuit in Austin calling the law unconstitutional because it interferes with free enterprise. And this week bills were filled in both houses of the Legislature that would change the law to permit Wal-Mart and grocery stores to sell liquor, although they still would be required to do so in a separate building with a separate entrance.

There are those who fear that if companies like Wal-Mart got into the package store game, they would run smaller stores out of business. Indeed, that often happens when the big chain enters a market.

Texas does have some quirky liquor laws, but changing them won’t be easy. This will be a fight worth watching.

This story was originally published February 20, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Wal-Mart fights to sell liquor."