New York authorities are clamping down on openings of wine and liquor shops citywide — as booze sales get hammered by everything from tariffs to rising competition with marijuana, The Post has learned.The State Liquor Authority, which controls where new stores can open, is rejecting up to 70% of license applications this year out of concern that new stores could help put existing shops out of business, according to attorneys who represent Big Apple liquor retailers.
This summer in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant enclave, Rand Liquor Store challenged a competitor’s application for a 138-square-foot shop at 296 Nostrand Ave. to reopen on its turf. The tiny store had closed in 2023 because of a dispute between its owners, according to the lawyer representing the application.
In an Aug. 6 hearing in Harlem, SLA Commissioner Lily Fan sided with Rand and clamped down on the proposal.
“The landscape has changed significantly since the prior store closed,” Fan said at the hearing. “I’m not sure that this area can justify another store.”…