Wine Without Borders

Direct Wine Shipping=Lower Prices, Study Says

October 31, 2007 – 5:19 am

Direct-to-consumer shipment of wine is good for America’s pocketbook. That’s the finding that has come out of a new study that shows when a state allows retailer-to-consumer shipment, local prices for wine come down in response to the competition.

The study was conducted by Alan Wiseman of Ohio State University and Jerry Ellig of George Mason University. They looked at the difference in prices of wine at brick and mortar stores in Northern Virginia and on the Internet before and after that state legalized direct shipment of wine.

According to the study, the difference between prices for the same wine at brick and mortar stores and online stores shrunk 40% after direct shipping was approved in Virginia in 2004.

You can download the entire study from the Specialty Wine Retailers Association website by clicking HERE.

This study gives consumers and advocacy groups who favor direct shipment of wine one more arrow in their quiver when they confront other groups and states who feel prohibiting consumers from buying from out of state retailers is in the best interests of the consumer. This study helps put that lie in sharp contrast to the truth, just as the Supreme Court and the Federal Trade Commission helped put the lie about the danger to minors from online sales in sharp relief.