When Skip Schwartz wants to get Wiley Roots beer into a new market, he walks into a local liquor store and cracks open a bottle for the owner. He gets to know the owner as they get to know him.

However, a proposed state ballot initiative that would allow grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine could change the way Schwartz, and other Greeley craft brewers, conduct their business. It could ultimately hurt their sales as well, and even stifle the growth of Greeley’s burgeoning brewery business.

Greeley brewers who distribute sell mostly to local liquor stores. If the initiative passes, those stores could be run out of business. “We’d have to close. Our employees would all be out of jobs,” said Cindi Feit-Clark, co-owner of Bittersweet Liquors.

Schwartz would need to start marketing to large grocery store chains, something he, and other craft brewers, don’t want to do. Instead of conducting business with his neighbors who know the local market, he’d pitch his product to corporate purchasing managers who might not even be in Colorado.

A group called Colorado Consumers for Choice recently launched a public campaign to get this initiative on the 2016 ballot, likely through voter petition. Colorado allows a single store in a company to sell full-strength beer, wine and spirits, but that means, say, one Safeway can sell the stronger stuff in the whole state. Given that, practically all grocery stores in Colorado can only sell beer with 3.2 percent alcohol or less, and they can’t sell wine. The group’s goal is to see Colorado join the other 45 states that allow the sale of full-strength beer and wine in grocery stores and create more convenience for consumers.

No paperwork has been filed, and the group isn’t ruling out working with legislators. The goal is to gather as much public support as possible. More than 43,000 people like their Facebook page and 5,629 people signed their online pledge so far, according to spokesman Rich Coolidge.

When Kyle Carbaugh opened Wiley Roots Brewing in 2013, he employed himself, his wife and one other person.

Since then, he hired Schwartz and another sales representative whose job is to go out to liquor stores and market the product. If the initiative passes, they say it would make their jobs considerably harder.

Grocery store companies often make decisions of what to stock for entire cities or regions, not individual stores. Erwin Hillmann, owner of Bijou Creek Winery in Greeley, said he once tried to get his product in one of the few supermarkets that could sell wine a few years ago. When he went into the local store to market his product, the manager laughed and said he had to take it to the corporate level.

To contend for shelf space in chain grocery stores, sellers would have to drive or fly to a store’s headquarters, which might not even be in Colorado. That would cost considerably more money.

The initiative also could eliminate a good chunk of where craft brewers find their business. Feit-Clark said her liquor store works with 40 distributors, and 20 of them are small, local businesses. She, and other liquor store owners want to curate a wide selection of brands for their customers and develop relationships with their distributors. Breweries that sell off-site rely on those relationships, plus a liquor store’s knowledge of the market, to sell their beer.

“(Grocery stores) wouldn’t be aware of our craft beer scene or even able to taste the product,” Carbaugh said.

De-localizing the decision-making process is probably what concerns Carbaugh the most. It takes at most a week to get his beer into a new location today. If an initiative were to pass, he’s worried the amount of labor and time it would take to get into a store would increase greatly, which would increase his costs.

Colin Jones, co-owner of WeldWerks Brewing Co., agreed with Carbaugh that significant barriers exist for getting into a grocery store market. He said stores will choose who to work with based on whoever is easiest to deal with and price point. Schwartz pointed out that a macro beverage company, like Anheuser Busch, can offer lots of different brands, whereas a smaller brewery can offer only one. Working with a large company that owns several brands could be a lot simpler for supermarkets than drafting dozens of contracts with small breweries.

In terms of price, craft beer is usually more expensive than well-known brands. A craft brewery bomber, a 22-ounce bottle, can range anywhere from $15 to $30. Jones said Greeley liquor store owners see benefit in taking a risk by stocking beers with a higher price point, even though they might sit longer on the shelves. But he thinks grocery stores won’t be willing to take that chance. They want brand recognition and product to move quickly, something small breweries don’t have or can’t guarantee.

Jones said all of these barriers mean one thing for local craft brewers: fewer sales.

“We’re going to get shut out,” Jones said.

Colorado Consumers for Choice isn’t pursuing the ballot initiative to eliminate craft brewing. Coolidge, the spokesman, said they hope the initiative would expand the choice of alcohol for consumers – not limit it. He pointed out California, Washington and Oregon allow craft beer sales in grocery stores. Those states are first, second and fourth in the nation in total amount of craft breweries, respectively, and their numbers are still growing.

“Bottom line, liquor laws don’t seem to impact the success of craft brewers as much as the entrepreneurial spirit of those who start them,” Coolidge said in an email.

Carbaugh agreed with Coolidge’s point that allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine would probably be more convenient for consumers. But he, like the other Greeley craft brewers, refuses to believe it could add more choice. He said when he traveled to other states that allow the sale of beer in grocery stores, he saw a very limited selection of local beer.

Colorado Consumers for Choice is still forming and the group would have to collect 98,492 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. But that doesn’t stop Greeley craft breweries from worrying about their future.

“Being a small, local family-run company, we won’t have the ability to get out market to the masses,” Carbaugh said.