Archive for the ‘Three Tier System’ Category
The most shocking thing about the new Liberation Distribution (LibDib) wholesale platform is that the idea to automate distribution of alcohol on a platform that invites everyone onboard apparently escaped the great minds occupying the middle tier. I jest. Of course American wholesalers didn’t think of the most obvious and efficient way to mitigate the distribution bottleneck for artisan wineries, brewers, cideries, and distillers. They aren’t in the business of efficient or obvious. No, it took someone who experienced first hand the absurd…
Having lived in a protective bubble for so many decades, booze distributors have developed a language all their own that can be difficult for non-distributors to understand. The language of the beer distributor is particularly challenging. Theirs is an opaque patois born of years of being isolated from the real world. Recently, a leader of the beer distributor peoples attempted to offer an explanation of the changing world of beer. Unfortunately, his Beerish got in the way of effectively communicating…
“We can’t support that bill and it doesn’t matter that it’s a good bill for our members. If we do, the wholesalers will kill all the bills we are looking to pass this year.” This response, from the head of a wine industry association, is not unique. That is to say, I’ve heard it said before; every year I hear it said; it gets blurted out by wine industry associations of all types in many states. The middlemen box-movers of…
The courts are not the only avenue through which the decaying and withering three-tier system is being challenged. The ginned up support for protecting middlemen from having to compete by stifling competition is also being addressed in legislatures and in the media and in the academy. However, as the National Law Journal notes, the efforts to use the courts to address the issue are moving along swimmingly. “Growth in recent years in the online shopping industry has led to new innovations in…
The wine industry and wine consumers should take careful note of the fact that in a Wine Spectator article about the sharp increase in winery to consumer shipments in 2016, writers Lexi Williams and Ben O’Donnell also spent considerable space outlining the various ways by which states are attempting to cut off consumers from shipments from out-of-state wine stores and retailers. Of particular interest in this story was the claim made by the state of Illinois (which is being sued…
