Marc, I may be misinterpreting your use of “skirt.” Is We Ship Express known to be a legal workaround? Or is the implication that the legality may be unknown in some states?
Is this company set up like VinoShipper?
I’d choose the “hold” option at checkout for retail purchases, then use chat to speak with someone and have them combine any additional orders for you and deliver to Rare Storage for shipping.
FWIW they have been great about holding my wine during times of extreme heat/cold beyond the 60 days they advertise, so I haven’t had to use Rare Storage. When I get the “your wines have been held for the maximum time; please arrange shipping” email, I just respond to let them know that weather is currently not conducive to safe transport, and they have always been fine with it. When I do eventually ship, it is overnight priority to a DC Fedex location.
Looks like still no shipping to NJ…I just went on the K&L Website and put in my zip code and no dice
No response to my email so I called them earlier today. Apparently I need to choose my shipping address in WA, then click to proceed and on the next page there’s the option to select RareStorage. Not super intuitive, but in the end it works.
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We Ship Express is licensed for interstate shipping with the exceptions noted. To the best of my knowledge the company started with “larger scale” winery direct or wholesale alcohol shipping. Then they started courting retail business. So, WSE is licensed per se. Is it truly legal for them to ship on behalf of retailers? That’s not something I am qualified to answer. But many, many retailers use them to access states they could not using their own FedEx or UPS accounts. My assumption is that their volumes are high enough that retail shipments are an “add on” and below the radar as it were. They used to be known as 24Seven and I think there was a merger or two along the way.
Again, lots of retailers use them. The bottom line would take a big hit if they didn’t. There is a web based electronic system WSE uses, the retail vendor generates a label and slaps it on the box, WSE picks up, the info on the label is converted to a FedEx shipping label and off it goes. If you ever got a package from, say, 145 Huguenot Street in New Rochelle, NY it came via WSE.
There are many, many similar companies with this business model. From what I can observe WSE has solid market share. With them as well as all these companies there is never any label reference to the actual vendor and 99% of the time there’s never a packing slip. Wine just shows up.
Just label a shipment as NRA*. Then it will go to any state, and any age.
(*No Real Alternative)