You’re rushing through the grocery store, picking up the final ingredients for a romantic dinner when you realize the one thing you’re missing — that perfect bottle of wine.

A bill before the Minnesota Legislature would allow adults to buy a bottle of wine and some steaks in the same store. If state grocers have their way, Minnesota would join 33 states that allow supermarkets to sell wine.

With the results of a November 2006 public opinion poll in hand, Minnesota grocers are hoping to update the state’s liquor laws and give customers greater convenience, choice and competition by selling wine with other dinner items.

“We want a fair chance as the markets in the other 33 states,” Econofoods store director Tim Stocker said.

Opponents of the bill, namely the liquor industry, municipal liquor stores and public safety advisers, state the competition will not only cut into profits and reduce city revenue, but also increase the availability and underage access to alcohol.

“I don’t think it belongs in a grocery store,” said Litchfield Liquors manager Angela Decker. “It belongs in a liquor store where you have to be 21, and we card everyone.”

Minnesota currently allows grocery stores and other non-liquor stores to sell only 3.2 beer and malt beverages. Grocery, convenience, drug or general merchandise stores cannot sell strong beer, wine or spirits for off-premises consumption.

If the bill is approved, grocery stores of at least 8,000 square feet could sell wine with an off-sale liquor license.

The Minnesota Grocers Association started a Wine With Dinner promotion campaign last fall. It points to the November public survey by Decision Resources Ltd. of Minneapolis that shows 68 percent of Minnesotans favor allowing grocery stores to sell wine.

A March 2006 report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that wine prices, adjusted for differences in taxes and insurance costs, are 5 to 7 percent higher in Minnesota compared to Wisconsin, where grocery stores can sell wine, beer and distilled spirits.

The report concluded that the state’s more restrictive retail laws are “probably responsible” for the higher wine prices because of a lack of competition among wine wholesalers. If Minnesota were to adopt less restrictive liquor laws like those in Wisconsin, Minnesota consumers could save about $100 million annually. Wine savings would be approximately $15 million.

“Removing state restrictions on competition in the liquor industry would lower prices and improve convenience, but some adverse impacts are also possible,” the report stated.

Those impacts could range from jeopardizing the existence of state municipal liquor stores and eliminating $16 million transferred to city budgets to an increase in alcohol abuse due to lower prices and increased availability, according to the report.

Read more from grocers and liquor store managers and see where local legislators stand on the issue in the March 29 Independent Review on newsstands today.