Kroger Expands Wine Sales

Over the weekend one of our staff members captured this photo at a Kroger store in the North Little Rock area. It shows the expanded wine selection the store now sells under a law the Arkansas Legislature passed last spring.

According to our staff member, this section of the store “was all baby food and diapers, from one end down the other” before Kroger converted it into a wine section.

Why Does This Matter?

Many are concerned that this could set the stage for legislation down the road letting grocery stores in Arkansas sell hard liquor the way grocery stores in states like Missouri do.

Prior to this year, grocery stores in wet counties were generally limited to selling a few wines produced by small farms in Arkansas. Act 508 of 2017 lets grocery stores sell wines from other states, like California.

Last spring we said Act 508 would simply mean more alcohol in stores where children and families shop. It appears that prediction has come true.

Infographic: Abortion Declining in Arkansas

We’ve written repeatedly about how abortion has fallen to historic lows in Arkansas.

Altogether, from 1991 to 2016, abortion in Arkansas fell by 53.4%.

Teen abortion fell by nearly 79% during that same time.

In 2000, the FDA approved RU486, a regimen of drugs used to perform chemical abortions. From 2003 to 2011, the number of chemical abortions performed in Arkansas generally rose. However, since 2011 the number of chemical abortions performed in Arkansas has fallen by 26.7%.

Across the board, abortion is in decline in Arkansas. Below is an infographic highlighting some of these numbers.