Total Wine wants to expand in Tennessee but needs a law change to do it

[jswordy]

Since TN changed its wine laws "to make it possible for wineries to ship directly to Tennesseans," this month wine.com listed my state as one it cannot deliver to and cancelled my StewardShip – after I don't know how many years that I have been ordering from them. A long time. And now this....

https://www.tennessean.com/story/ne...FR8wkHxVtrApyP7omNAOarfL9eRzN0iSyhGgLtBKHthcI

 

[jswordy]

I found articles about what the TN law "to make it possible for wineries to ship directly to consumers" actually does. What a goofy state.

https://www.winespectator.com/artic...ors-aim-to-limit-winery-direct-shipping-sales
https://sovos.com/blog/ship/tenness...-on-fulfillment-houses-in-dtc-wine-shipments/

 

[ibglowin]

Then you have the "great" "business friendly" State of TX and their liquor license quagmire.........


In many other states, you can get booze at Walmart and Costco. Not in Texas. Thanks to powerful lobbying from homegrown liquor store interests, Texas is the only state in the nation that bars publicly traded corporations from holding liquor permits. You can thank the powerful liquor store owners for that.

The law prompted a lawsuit that now sits in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The fight began in 2015, when Walmart sued the TABC arguing the law is unfair because it shuts publicly traded corporations out of the marketplace while allowing family-owned chains the right to an unlimited number of liquor store permits.


So in TX they do sell beer and wine inside Costco but if you want hard liquor you have to go to a privately owned store just outside Costco to buy any/all hard stuff. You want any Kirkland Signature brand liquor you are completely out of luck in TX.

 

[jswordy]

Then you have the "great" "business friendly" State of TX and their liquor license quagmire.........


In many other states, you can get booze at Walmart and Costco. Not in Texas. Thanks to powerful lobbying from homegrown liquor store interests, Texas is the only state in the nation that bars publicly traded corporations from holding liquor permits. You can thank the powerful liquor store owners for that.

The law prompted a lawsuit that now sits in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The fight began in 2015, when Walmart sued the TABC arguing the law is unfair because it shuts publicly traded corporations out of the marketplace while allowing family-owned chains the right to an unlimited number of liquor store permits.


So in TX they do sell beer and wine inside Costco but if you want hard liquor you have to go to a privately owned store just outside Costco to buy any/all hard stuff. You want any Kirkland Signature brand liquor you are completely out of luck in TX.

You cannot buy booze except at a liquor store in Tennessee, either. Used to be, you could only buy wine at a liquor store, too. I think they changed that about 5 years ago. I'm used to my home state, Illinois, where you can buy hard liquor at a gas station.

 

[Boatboy24]

So in TX they do sell beer and wine inside Costco but if you want hard liquor you have to go to a privately owned store just outside Costco to buy any/all hard stuff. You want any Kirkland Signature brand liquor you are completely out of luck in TX.

Same here in VA. You can only buy liquor in state run stores.

 

[ibglowin]

No state run stores in TX. Just crazy laws that prove the lobbyist are buying off the politicians to keep things the same as its ever been.........

Same here in VA. You can only buy liquor in state run stores.

 

[jswordy]

No state run stores in TX. Just crazy laws that prove the lobbyist are buying off the politicians to keep things the same as its ever been.........

Yeah, same in TN. Private but you can only own two liquor stores max. I remember living in VA and those state stores! In AL, they have BOTH private and state stores, and the keep a list of what brands you can and cannot get, private or state! Politics in the South, man. "Protecting us" by lining their pockets, lol.

 

[ibglowin]

TX has a 5 store max except for the “consanguinity exception,” or loophole! I am telling you you can't make this sh!t up!

The “consanguinity exception,” allows a permit holders who have a parent, child or sibling who’s also in the liquor store business to join forces and get as many liquor permits as they want.

That’s how giant family owned chains like Spec’s and Twin Liquors have been able to build dozens of stores around the state. Only seven liquor store companies benefit from the consanguinity loophole, according to the Texas Package Stores Association.

 

[ceeaton]

Yeah, same in TN. Private but you can only own two liquor stores max. I remember living in VA and those state stores! In AL, they have BOTH private and state stores, and the keep a list of what brands you can and cannot get, private or state! Politics in the South, man. "Protecting us" by lining their pockets, lol.

Visit PRPA, the home of ancient laws covering all facets of life. It took a long, long time to be able to buy a 6 pack of beer or a bottle of wine somewhere other than the State store or licensed beer outlet. Liquor still only resides in the State run store...

 

[Boatboy24]

Visit PRPA, the home of ancient laws covering all facets of life. It took a long, long time to be able to buy a 6 pack of beer or a bottle of wine somewhere other than the State store or licensed beer outlet. Liquor still only resides in the State run store...

On more than one Sunday while attending college outside Philly, we drove to NJ to buy beer because you couldn't in PA.

 

[jswordy]

On more than one Sunday while attending college outside Philly, we drove to NJ to buy beer because you couldn't in PA.

Yep, when I moved to TN they still had Blue Laws, too. AL kept theirs longer than TN did, leading to long lines at the border on Sundays. My Dad used to call it Communism, lol.

 

[ceeaton]

On more than one Sunday while attending college outside Philly, we drove to NJ to buy beer because you couldn't in PA.

I'm only about 20 or so miles from the border as the crow flies. If you have a big event, like an outdoor party that requires copious amounts of alcohol (other than wine), it's normal to make a trip down to just over the MD border. Just have to watch the "officials" looking for the quick drive back over the border (then they stop you and you pay a penalty and the taxes due in PRPA). I know of the best routes to take back, but not from experience, just from neighbors who have used them.

 

[Fox Squirrel Vin]

Then you have the "great" "business friendly" State of TX and their liquor license quagmire.........


In many other states, you can get booze at Walmart and Costco. Not in Texas. Thanks to powerful lobbying from homegrown liquor store interests, Texas is the only state in the nation that bars publicly traded corporations from holding liquor permits. You can thank the powerful liquor store owners for that.

The law prompted a lawsuit that now sits in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The fight began in 2015, when Walmart sued the TABC arguing the law is unfair because it shuts publicly traded corporations out of the marketplace while allowing family-owned chains the right to an unlimited number of liquor store permits.


So in TX they do sell beer and wine inside Costco but if you want hard liquor you have to go to a privately owned store just outside Costco to buy any/all hard stuff. You want any Kirkland Signature brand liquor you are completely out of luck in TX.

I can't say that I oppose this because these big retailers are just destroying private ownership businesses and the livelihoods of the people that built them and forcing those previous owners to work for Wall-Mart wages. The only Kirkland brand product worth drinking is the XO Cognac, everything else they label is nothing but garbage. Florida allows them to sell beer and wine in store but hard liquor has to be sold out of a liquor exclusive store attached to it.

I'm also not a big fan of wine.com as a consumer simply because shipping wine in 100 degree heat in the Florida summer and the handling it receives does not favor the wine. But, if I was distributing my wine through them and my customers had no complaints and I was able to sell more wine I'd see the value in that too.

I think ultimately we should be making laws that are the best for consumers and small business owners, not companies that end up being owned by Blackrock or Vanguard.

 

[jswordy]

I can't say that I oppose this because these big retailers are just destroying private ownership businesses and the livelihoods of the people that built them and forcing those previous owners to work for Wall-Mart wages. The only Kirkland brand product worth drinking is the XO Cognac, everything else they label is nothing but garbage. Florida allows them to sell beer and wine in store but hard liquor has to be sold out of a liquor exclusive store attached to it.

I'm also not a big fan of wine.com as a consumer simply because shipping wine in 100 degree heat in the Florida summer and the handling it receives does not favor the wine. But, if I was distributing my wine through them and my customers had no complaints and I was able to sell more wine I'd see the value in that too.

I think ultimately we should be making laws that are the best for consumers and small business owners, not companies that end up being owned by Blackrock or Vanguard.

Well, living where I do, I can say that anyone wanting to drink top quality wines opposes this and all restrictions on getting what we, as more discerning wine consumers, want. Small businesses sell ONLY what their customers will drink, and here, that is --- well --- largely crap ... it is what it is, unless you can get wine shipped in. Thats why when I brought a good Bordeaux to a party yesterday, people took a sip and then took out their phones to snap pictures of the bottle and were asking me over and over where I bought it locally. ALL the rest of the wine there was bought locally and was Constellation Brands stuff. My Bordeaux came from Missouri. It did not last long.

I am of legal age and I should not have to fight and scour other states, as I presently do, to find businesses who will ship me the wines I want, simply because state legislators who have been handed cash by the large distributors have built firewalls in return for that favor.

Ship your wine in the fall and spring. That's what I do in my Southern location. I have never a problem with any bottle of the literally hundreds I have had shipped from anywhere. If you think those bottles are handled any differently on the way to a retailer instead of to your door, you might want to think again.

 

[wood1954]

Tennessee is just old fashioned, I was there last year. At an Italian restaurant they had no wine available, at a Mexican restaurant they had no margaritas , talk about uncivil
sed.

 

[ratflinger]

These states that will vote in dope for sale on the corner but refuse to expand liquor laws are beyond me. Liquor sales are just revenue for the states so why do they fight to regulate so hard? Liquor should be for sale 24/7/365 by anyone that can afford the retail license.

 

[vinny]

I think ultimately we should be making laws that are the best for consumers and small business owners, not companies that end up being owned by Blackrock or Vanguard.

In a prefect world.