NYC bodegas want state law changed so they can start selling wine, liquor

New York City bodegas are now joining a push to change state law so that they can start selling wine and even hard liquor.

Owners of independent liquor stores are once again fighting the proposal.

Assemblymember Amanda Septimo said some state liquor laws are outdated, from a bygone era at the end of Prohibition. She said she wants to expand sales from liquor stores only to supermarkets and bodegas.

"We know everyone is feeling the squeeze right now. We want business and more options with what they sell and, finally, the state really needs tax revenue," Septimo said.

For years, supermarket owners have been pushing for this and more recently the bodegas got involved. Because details are being worked on, the bill may only be about expanding wine sales.

Fernando Mateo and leaders with the United Bodegas of America told CBS News New York they'd be okay with that.

"We don't have to take it to the level of selling liquor hard liquor, but wine is something that that's done in many States and easy to adopt here in New York," Mateo said.

New York state has an estimated 4,000 Independent liquor stores and some of the owners are pushing against the bodega liquor sales proposal.

"It's going to be bad [for] our business. Like, if they sell wine and alcohol and hard liquor some people gonna get the food from here and buy the alcohol for there, too," liquor store worker Rajveer Singh said.

Browsing the wine racks inside a West Side liquor store recently were upstate residents Melissa and Shane Konwisarz, who said they'd support a new state law allowing more than beer in grocery stores and bodegas.

"I think it would be much more convenient if I could get something I needed, a bottle of wine, at the grocery store while in there and not have to hop around," Melissa Konwisarz said.

No matter the outcome it will be another chapter in a long running battle over booze.