Written Testimony of Angela Crock in Opposition to Sub. Senate Bill 102

Summary

This is written testimony from Angela Crock, owner of F & W Grocery, est. 1963 D.B.A. Caldwell Food Center, addressed to Chair Dick Stein and the House Commerce and Labor Committee in opposition to Sub. Senate Bill 102. The testimony says the store is a small business in Southeastern Ohio that competes with national retail chains. It says the store's advantage over those chains is Sunday Sales of Beer, Wine and Spirituous Liquor. It also says the community should have a vote on who sells alcohol, and it closes by stating strong opposition to the bill.

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Full text

To: Chair Dick Stein and committee members
House Commerce and Labor Committee

As a small business owner in Southeastern Ohio, we invest our earnings back into our store, our staff
and into our community. However, this is becoming more difficult as national retail chains creep into
our community and are slowly chipping away at our customer base and our daily sales. We attempt to
offer better customer service and unique items to keep the customers buying local.

An advantage that we have over the national retail chains is Sunday Sales of Beer, Wine and Spirituous
Liquor that my father went door to door to campaign for our business to have this service for our
community. Currently, other national chains have not taken the extra effort to gain this business which
assists our small store, one day a week, to have an advantage to stay alive in the retail community.

In our community, the retail chains do not invest in the community and the schools. The extra revenue
they would receive is not kept local to help our children grow. As a small business we are one of the
larger employers locally. We try to keep jobs available for our employees which become our family. We
pay above minimum wage, we offer benefits for our staff, we try to apply a raise every year, we attend
our local fair to purchase 4-H/FFA animals (12 in 2019), and we attend or donate to each charity in the
community. However, the national retajl chains that have a store in our community employ very few
staff, they do not offer benefits except to their main manager and cut hours so they are not required to
offer benefits, pay minimum wage to their non-status employees, they have not been seen attending
events to help reinvest in our community and all request for donations are denied.

in addition, our community feels they should have a vote on who sells alcohol. In one election a few
years ago, there were two issues on the ballot to sell alcohol. One was for a locally owned retail store
and the other was a national retail chain. In that same election, the locally owned store passed by a
landslide, but the national retail failed significantly. in our faith based community, the residents place
trust into the local business owners to train and monitor staffing to ensure laws are abided when it
relates to alcohol.

We strongly oppose the passing of Sub. Senate Bill 102. We believe it is in the best interest of the
community for the decision to be voted on for Sunday sales, and that the process should be the one we
used successfully. Initially, this bill did not bother me as | did not mind that the work that my father did
help pave the wave for future retailers to have it easier. However, after | understood the financial
statistics and how it will negatively impact our business and community | have had a change of heart.
To reiterate, we strongly oppose Sub. Senate Bill 102.

Respectfully Submitted,
Angela Crock
Owner of F & W Grocery, est. 1963

D.B.A. Caldwell Food Center

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