Derek Camille stocks the wine shelves at Gasbarro’s Fine Wine & Spirits in Seekonk, the day after Massachusetts liquor store owners dodged a bullet when voters rejected a ballot question that would have allowed wine sales at grocery stores.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

Voters in Massachusetts handed liquor-store owners an early Christmas present Tuesday as they handily defeated a ballot initiative that would have expanded the number of stores that could sell wine.

Question 1 was soundly rejected, garnering only 44 percent of the votes cast, according to the Associated Press.“The beautiful thing is the voters saw the facts,” said Christopher Gasbarro, owner of Gasbarro’s Seekonk Fine Wine & Spirits. The ballot initiative asked Massachusetts voters to create a new class of liquor licenses for food stores that want to sell wine. It would also have done away with the law limiting individuals or corporations from owning more than three liquor licenses.

The fight between liquor-store owners and grocers over wine sales spurred the most expensive ballot question campaign in the state’s history, with opposing sides combining to spend $11.5 million. The Massachusetts Food Association did not return phone calls asking for comment.

The initiative had implications for Rhode Island, because a successful campaign would have increased the number of wine merchants in border communities — each with the potential to draw away sales from this state.

Liquor-store owners in Rhode Island were girding themselves for a fight with supermarkets in Massachusetts if the measure had passed, said Tom Saccoccia, a director of the United Independent Liquor Retailers of Rhode Island.

“It wouldn’t help Rhode Island businesses,” Saccoccia said. “It was just too many [outlets].”

Polls taken two weeks before the election showed the question was favored 2 to 1 among those surveyed, according to the Associated Press.

Heavy advertising in the late going by the Massachusetts Package Stores Association and lots of appearances by opponents across the commonwealth apparently turned the tide.

“It was a lot of time going town to town,” Gasbarro said. “I could see [the failure] coming a week ago.”

The defeat doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the matter, although it does give the liquor stores plenty of time to stock up for the next fight. By law, the question cannot return to the ballot for five years, he said.

With the holiday shopping season already under way, he said, it’s time to turn his attention back to the store on Route 6 in Seekonk.

“I really just want to run my business,” he said.

Saccoccia, a Rhode Islander who owns a liquor store in Centredale village in North Providence, said he is grateful he won’t have to put in the extra time that Gasbarro did this year.

“We’re happy,” he said. “It was the right decision.”