Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Oct 29, 2012

Election Day is Coming—Let’s Talk Beer, Wine and Booze

It’s entirely possible that outside of bond issues, the most common type of issue voters will register their opinion upon come election day is something to do with the sale of alcohol. It might be Sunday alcohol sales or allowing beer and wine to be sold at retail or allowing mixed drinks in restaurants. You can get a taste of how prevalent votes on alcohol issues are by doing a google news search on “Alcohol Sales Vote”. The return of…

Sep 28, 2012

Little Whiny Boys Inhabit The Wine and Beer Industry

Another round of childish whining by beer wholesalers appears to be underway. This time in Florida. The issue that brings the beer wholesalers to tears? The protectionist system of alcohol distribution from which they benefit and that allows them to coast along without answering to anyone or any competition is being challenged. Boo Hoo. The primary reason for this new round of childish whining by beer wholesalers is a result of MillerCoors challenging Florida’s “Franchise Law”. You know what a…

Sep 18, 2012

Series Sheds Light on Absurd Alcohol Laws….Again.

Every now and then an important news gathering outlet decides to run a series of stories on alcohol politics. The series is usually focused on a single state. And the series is usually driven by a single reporter who in some way or another has come to appreciate that alcohol politics usually comes down to the same thing that most other kinds of politics comes down to: unjustified amounts of influence invested in a single entity. Harry Esteve of the…

Sep 17, 2012

In Alcohol Politics, Consumers Are a Threat

Usually, when one player in the alcohol marketplace —the distributors, producers, retailers, etc.—want something from politicians, when they want something changed, they walked into a legislator’s office, close the door and start talking. Then they walk down the hall and do it again. And again. They lobby. They might throw some money at the problem. But it all pretty much happens behind closed doors. What you rarely see in alcohol politics is a player make a public threat that if…