Grain of salt with your wine survey?
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal - November 10, 2006

by Dirk DeYoung
Editor

This is the week to ask: Was the vote fair? Were the results unfairly swayed? Why the unprecedented turnout? Oh, this isn't about Tuesday's election. I'm talking about last week's online Business Pulse survey.

The Business Journal conducts an unscientific online poll every week, posting the results in the box to your right on this page.
This week's poll about selling wine in grocery stores was extraordinary on two accounts. First, the more than 1,700 votes we received is at least triple what we normally get.

Second, it was influenced by lobbying groups, something we haven't noticed before. Last week, the Minnesota Grocers Association e-mailed out a "Wine with Dinner Action Alert" that urged recipients to vote in our poll and provided a Web link to our survey. The Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association sent out a similar e-mail to its members.

Jamie Pfuhl, executive director of the grocers association, declined to say how many people are on its e-mail list. The group, using PR firm Himle Horner Inc., has launched a major Wine With Dinner campaign to put pressure on the Minnesota Legislature to allow wine -- and only wine -- to be sold in grocery stores, the latest in a multiyear push that has gone nowhere in St. Paul.

"I think this is the year," Pfuhl said.

Grocery chains have started lobbying customers to push for the change. Cub Foods, for example, promotes the idea on its paper bags.

The grocers group points to a St. Cloud State University statewide poll from 2002 that showed 59 percent supporting wine sales in grocery stores.

The Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association, which represents municipal liquor stores, opposes the idea. Executive Director Paul Kaspszak argues that allowing grocery stores to sell wine opens the door to strong beer and liquor sales there, which is the case in many states where grocers sell wine. He points to a poll conducted by Woodbury-based DRS Acquisitions where a majority of respondents, 64 percent, say "alcohol" should not be sold in grocery stores.

Kaspszak disputes the results of our poll, pointing out that the grocers e-mail list "is bigger than my list. They're out there looking for e-mail addresses through their big public-relations campaign." His membership e-mail list is "a couple of hundred people."

So what do I think about our poll? It's curious that 70 percent want grocery stores to carry all forms of booze. So if many of the "yes" votes were influenced by the grocers' e-mail, they didn't stick to the script.

But considering the lobbying, be skeptical about the results.