(ClarionLedger) - “Looking for Wine?” signs greet customers at some grocery stores in the state, including Kroger and Wal-Mart stores.

In what is shaping up to be a potentially major fight in the Legislature, a coalition, including those two grocery giants, is pushing for passage of legislation to allow wine to be sold in retail grocery stores in counties where alcohol is legal.

But Nathan McHardy, owner of Briarwood Wine and Spirits in Jackson, said allowing big box stores to sell wine would greatly erode and undermine local businesses.

“We are facing Armageddon. It’s dangerous to us,” McHardy said.

Kroger spokeswoman Teresa Dickerson said the retailer supports the Looking for Wine? initiative "because our shoppers are asking us for convenience and options. By providing beer and wine selections in area Kroger stores, we can provide a comfortable environment for our shoppers, and this opportunity will save customers a tremendous amount of time. Plus, wine pairs extremely well with dinner."

"Our customers are our top priority,"  she said.

Camille Scales Young, a lobbyist who is spearheading the Looking for Wine? effort; said people want convenience. “For millennials, everything is about convenience.”

However, the Mississippi Hospitality Beverage Association, made up of more than 600 independent beverage retailers, is adamantly opposed to changing state law.

Association President Victor Pittman said if chains do not get to sell wines in their stores, their CEOs will still enjoy hefty salaries, take lavish vacations and stockholders will still make money, but a majority of local wine and spirit shop-owners will be out of business within a couple of years.

Young, again emphasizing convenience, said that under state law no adult can bring a child inside a liquor store, so that prevents some people from stopping at a package store to buy wine.

Young said a study done by Mississippi State University shows the sale of a bottle of wine priced below $15 would increase if sold in grocery stores, but sales of those priced over $15 would not.

“It will add jobs and lead to additional tax receipts,” Young said of the rationale for selling wine in retail grocery stores.

Young said the effort is to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores in counties where alcohol sales are allowed, not in counties where alcohol is prohibited. Thirty-six Mississippi counties don't allow beer and wine sales, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Revenue. The bureau's Alcohol Beverage Control unit regulates dispensing of alcoholic beverages in the state.

Of the 2,039 ABC permits issued, 606 are for package retailers (off-premises consumption only), said Mississippi Bureau of Revenue spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury.

Several states have approved the sale of wine in grocery stores, including Tennessee. The Tennessee law goes into effect July 1.