(SunHerald) - The effort to put wine in grocery stores has some of the trappings of a grass-roots movement: website, Facebook community with more than 900 members, a newsletter and a Twitter feed. But the real fight will take place in the legislature in Jackson with powerful lobbyists on both sides of the issue.

The fine print at the bottom of the Looking for Wine website points to Cornerstone Governmental Affairs, a firm with offices in Washington, Chicago, Jackson and across the Southeast.

Among Looking for Wine lobbyist Camille Young's other clients are Mississippi Power, the state chamber of commerce, Save the Children, Mississippi State University, C Spire Wireless, Nissan North America and a several others.

She said Wal-Mart and Kroger are the corporate members of the coalition that includes hundreds of Mississippi residents. She said other companies are considering joining.

The Mississippi Hospitality Beverage Association opposes such changes to the way wine reaches consumers. In fact, longtime lobbyist Buddy Medlin said, that's the reason liquor store owners brought him in 25 or 30 years ago -- to keep wine out of grocery stores.

But he's not just the head of the association, he also runs the lobbying firm Buddy Medlin and Associates. His clients include Phillip Morris parent Altria Client Services, AT&T, Mississippi Association for Home Care, Mississippi Chiropractic Association, among others.

He said there has never been a serious effort to expand the wine market to grocery stores until the past couple of years. Liquor stores, he said, are mostly mom-and-pop operations. In fact, a person in Mississippi can own only one liquor store. Kroger and Wal-Mart own dozens of stores across the state.

David v. Goliath

"If the big-box distributors, Wal-Mart and what-not, take it over, it would diminish the livelihood" of the liquor store owners, he said. "They would lose that business.

"It's a real battle of us versus them. They have some real capable and respectable lobbyists."

But Young said putting wines in grocery store should expand the market.

"We really expect it to have a high economic impact," she said. "All of our neighbors have it."

She said people living near the state line are shopping at stores in Louisiana and Alabama.

"It's because of the convenience," she said.

Medlin is skeptical of claims the expansion would bring more money.

"I haven't seen any evidence of that," he said. "I don't think the state would realize the profits they're talking about."

Medlin said Mississippi's method, known in the industry as a control system, isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.

"There's never been anything discolored about the system," he said. "Obey the laws or get kicked to the side."

A bigger conversation

State Rep. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, introduced a bill last year that would have allowed stronger wine in grocery stores had it not died in committee. This year, he hopes the legislature takes an even broader look at the ABC.

"I just want to have a conversation about: Is the ABC model we're using today, the Alcohol Beverage Control model, what we need and are there some improvements we need to make to the system?" he said. "I'm looking at it from a holistic perspective. Let's just take it from the top. Let's ask a lot of questions and let's get input from as many people as we can."

DeLano said he's starting the conversation because he's from the Coast where people are more accustomed to talking about alcohol than other parts of the state, many of which remain dry. And he wants to talk about the small changes in the alcohol laws that could help the mom-and-pop liquor stores, even if wine is sold at the grocery.