Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 10/13/16. David Smith, store manager of Food City 738 in Soddy-Daisy, speaks about the area he has designated to display wine if sales are approved while walking through his grocery store on October, 13, 2016. Soddy-Daisy could have wine for sale at grocery stores by the end of the year if its residents vote yes on Nov. 8.
If the referendum passes, Soddy-Daisy will join Chattanooga, Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Red Bank and Signal Mountain, which approved wine sales in retail food stores in 2014. Grocery stores in those cities began selling wine on July 1. A separate Hamilton County referendum on wine in retail food stores will affect the towns of Lookout Mountain, Walden and Ridgeside.
Although no Soddy-Daisy grocery sells wine yet, a couple of package stores have established themselves within city limits after a 2014 referendum approved such businesses. Voters said yes to package stores by nearly 2-to-1, with about 2,700 votes cast.
Soddy-Daisy resident Nicole Harper said it doesn’t matter much to her one way or the other.
“I’m OK with it,” Harper said. “I sometimes drink wine, but I’m not really a drinker.”