Consumer shipping question

Wine Pimps
21

I know what that means. Give the princess a hug grouphug

[pillow-fight.gif]

22

Shipping is so complicated now that explaining it is an industry unto itself. Thus:

If you want to really get worked up about the stupidity and confoundedness of U.S. wine shipping rules, check out Tom Wark:

http://fermentation.typepad.com/

23

Here is a really interesting paper from the American Association of Wine Economists that shows that states are losing out big time on tax revenue when they block interstate shipping of wine or make it really difficult to ship. Basically they are forcing wine shipping underground…

AAWE Working Paper No. 61 Economics
Direct ship blowout: how the Supreme Court’s Granholm decision has led to a flood of non-taxed wine shipments
John Dunham, Victor Fung Eng and Peter Ronga
http://wine-economics.org/workingpapers/AAWE_WP61.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

24

If shipping from wineries to NJ is allowed, does anyone know why some wineries will ship to NJ and some will not? any type of state license required? It’s been my experience that less than half of the wineries I deal with will ship here.

25

I am in Texas. retailers (including KL) will not ship here - unless it is nbot marked wine. One has shipped to me before. I hate this - because I love KL and some of the othe rplaces selection a bit better than what I have access too.

Wineries (unless 5034 passes) for the most part still ship here - and I have my credit card as proof.

Then again it is already 100 degrees here so all shipping is on hold until fall.

26

NJ is a “three tier” state and the shipping process is as follows:

  • winery sends wine to fulfillment/shipping company
  • said company then arranges for a shipment to a retail outlet in the area the order is going to
  • retail outlet then arranges delivery of the order via UPS or FedEx
  • customer receives wine

the winery i used to work for had this process in place for AZ, NJ, and MA, and i’m pretty sure they had to have a license to ship wine into each state. the fulfillment/shipping company handled all the logistics as far as compliance, packing the wine, and getting it to the retailer.

27

My guess would be that some wineries don’t want to go through the permitting/licensing and tax payment processes some states require of them to ship legally. Others may find that doing that fits within their capabilities and budgets, while others may just ship without all of it.

When I was a retailer I did a rather small amount of inter-state shipping but was caught by the state of Vermont (I think it was) on my very first FedEx shipment there. I’m sure FedEx is required to give the state records of all alcohol shipments they deliver. What I got was a cease/desist or get a permit and pay the state taxes letter from the State of Vermont. Some states’ permit fees can be more than a small shipper would make on a year’s shipping to that state.

28

I’ve always had a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and routinely shipped to all 50 states. But I had the same experience you did with Vermont and that’s now the one place I won’t ship. It’s not like I actually made that many shipments into the state, but it turned out to be an irritating problem because one of my bigger customers used to ship wine to his sister a few times per year and he’s now pissed at me because I can’t do it anymore.