We must save Long Island's small businesses

On the streets of Long Island's downtowns, storefront vacancies are popping up where vital small businesses once stood.

It's a sign of a troubling trend of big box stores, Amazon delivery trucks and national chains leveraging their economic backing from private equity and hedge funds to dominate what was once the domain of mom-and-pop-styled small businesses.

Unless our state and county leaders recognize and put a halt to this, it could mean trouble for the region and other parts of the Empire State, especially those with an ecosystem based on wine making.

Long Island has built an entire business sector, including tourism, around the quality of product coming from an estimated 82 local winemakers. Since the repeal of prohibition, the sale of that wine and liquor has been highly regulated to safeguard communities and prohibit sales to minors, while establishing a multi-layered distribution and sales network that has created many thousands of good-paying jobs at wholesalers and distributors, many of which are also union jobs.

Now, there is a well-funded, national lobbying effort, with not-so-insignificant legislative support in Albany, to change the laws to allow supermarkets and drug stores to sell wine.

The impact could be devastating.

Last fall, Colorado voters narrowly approved a proposition to allow grocery and convenience stores to sell wine. One Maryland-based liquor retailer, with 246 superstores across 27 states, propelled the spending of over $13 million for this proposition and two other referendum items that failed in the push to give major corporations a piece of the state’s wine and alcohol sales. The same special interests are planning a similar campaign in New York.

When Main Street merchants close, the jobs they provide often disappear forever. Consider that Home Depot killed many local paint, hardware, plumbing, nursery, and gardening stores, just as Barnes & Noble killed the local bookstore. Now even Barnes & Noble can no longer compete against the might of Amazon.

Bed Bath & Beyond just announced it is closing an additional 140-plus stores as it considers bankruptcy. Think of all the local merchants who thrived in that market before Bed Bath & Beyond burst on the scene. Those local merchants were forced out and jobs were lost because a family-run business could not compete on a level playing field.

It is sad to see elected leaders in Albany embrace the promises and plans of mega retailers to take over Long Island’s retail landscape, at the inevitable demise of local shopkeepers. New York State’s 3,500 local wine and liquor stores face a critical juncture.

Local wine and spirits stores are key to the success of Suffolk County vineyards because they create opportunities for up-and-coming New York vintners and brewers to sell their products, unlike European-owned mega-chains like Aldi or Stop & Shop that put profit first. Those retailers demand and dictate prices that few small brewers or wineries can thrive on.

Our local merchants take the time to build and maintain personal relationships with countless customers, forming a backbone and a supportive network for local business owners. They are the fabric of the towns and villages that make Long Island so special.

It is a calamity when the regulatory dominos fall one by one, empowering special interests and damaging small business. When one neighborhood business closes, and that storefront sits vacant or is replaced by yet another 99-cent store, the damage is done.