Let them order wine!
New Jersey is one of about 20 states that does not allow wine to be shipped directly to consumers. At present, consumers can get wine shipped only to a retail outlet.A bill that would remove the ban faces opposition from New Jersey liquor retailers, who fear it would cut into their business and make it easier for under age drinkers to buy wine.
The bill, which was introduced but not passed in the last legislative session, allows in-state vineyards and wineries, and out of state vineyards, wholesalers and retailers, to obtain a permit to ship wine straight to the buyer’s home.
Yeah, I bet the wine retailers are really really don’t want underage drinkers to have wine delivered. Because they do such a damn fine job of stopping underage drinking as it is.
It’s a stupid objection. First of all, to have wine delivered, you are going to have to pay for it…with a credit card. Not many minors run around with a credit card, and if they do have one, Mom or Dad probably get the bill. Second, speaking as someone who has had wine delivered to my home (when I lived in Florida) I had to show ID to the delivery man (who was actually younger than I).
Now, will it cut into the retailer’s business? I suppose it’s possible – if you can buy the same product online at such a discount that it remains cheaper even after adding shipping costs. More than likely, people will do what I did recently – order wines that the local retailers don’t stock (honestly, try to find anything from either Caprock or Llano Estacado in a Jersey store – heck, try and find a Jersey brand in a Jersey store). But I actually had to have it delivered to a friend in New York because New Jersey is stuck in the dark ages here.
But critics say the law would undermine the current system in which vineyards deliver wine through distributors to retailers, who sell it to consumers.
“It’s a pretty big threat,” said Diane Weiss, executive director of the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Association, a Trenton-based trade group that represents about 500 bars and taverns around the state. “You are bypassing the whole retail aspect.”
“It could be the beginning of something,” she said. “Right now, it’s the wine connoisseurs. Then what about the scotch connoisseurs?”
Yeah, there are tens of thousands of Scotch distilleries in New Jersey, right? Let me give you a term I learned in Econ 101: “economies of scale.” It’s just damned cheaper to send a dozen cases of Johnny Walker to the distributer than it is to send the same number of bottles to forty or so individual customers.
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