With the stroke of a pen Wednesday morning, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak cleared the way for local brewers to start serving beer straight from their breweries.
“We’re making it easier for Minnesota beer drinkers to drink Minnesota beer and create jobs here,” Rybak said. “Sales of pints on site will also grow the local beer economy by lowering the barriers for entry for new breweries, which will allow them to hit the ground running. And it complements Minneapolis’ burgeoning local food economy that is creating new businesses and even more jobs.”
Story here. I agree it will make it better for the local economy, but I don't buy the jobs angle. The ordinance will improve the local economy because the brewhouses want to have the taproom and beer drinkers want to sample the fare at the plant, so to speak. It gives both sides more freedom and both sides will be better off.
But on the jobs angle, who is going to visit the taprooms - locals or non-locals? How many non-locals would have come to Minneapolis anyways? My guess is that most of the tap room visitors will be folks from the Twin Cities area (not just Minneapolis) who would have spent time in Minneapolis anyways. In that case the ordinance would simply redistribute economic activity rather than create it
But I like the ordinance because it gives people more freedom of choice. I just disagree with the jobs angle.