Wine Without Borders

Wine Retailers Should Send the Right Message

November 7, 2007 – 1:22 pm

While most wine retailers that offer their stock on line explain what states they will ship to, few of them explain why they won’t ship to certain states. And if they explain, it is usually cursory note that shipping wine is prohibited by law in X.

It would do the consumer good to understand more about the restrictions that prohibit them from purchasing and having shipped to them wine from outside the state. To that end, following are some options for retailers who want to give customers in states they can’t ship to a better understanding of their predicament. Retailers have SWRA’s permission to use any of these explanations with or without attribution to SWRA

The “Competition and Commerce” Message
Because you live in a state that prefers to stifle competition and commerce rather than encourage it, we are unable to ship you wine. You should contact your local state representative and ask if they are willing to encourage commerce and competition by authoring a bill that allows you to receive shipments from out-of-state retailers.

The “Enormous Influence” Message
Due to enormous influence by certain economic interests in your state, laws have been passed that protect those interests by prohibiting you from receiving wine from from us. We are sorry for this inconvenience. We suggest you contact your state representative and ask if your interests deserve protection also.

The “Unconstitutional Legislation” Message
Unfortunately yours is one of the growing number of states that has chosen to pass unconstitutional legislation only allowing in-state retailers to ship wine to you, while specifically making it against the law for out-of-state retailers to ship wine to you. As as result, we are prohibited from transacting business with you. We suggest you contact a good constitutional law advocate.

The “Campaign Contributions” Message
Because of enormous campaign contributions to state politicians by alcohol wholesalers, laws have been passed that protect wholesalers from competing in a free market. That means your interests as an adult consumer have been disregarded and we may not ship you wine. We suggest you contact your state representative or come up with about $500,000 in campaign contributions in order to get the attention of your legislature.

The “Millions of Children Will Drink” Message
We regret to inform you that we can not ship wine to you because it is believed if we do that thousands, perhaps millions, of children will get their hands on alcohol This is not an indication of the danger you in particular pose toward children, but rather an indication politicians will believe the most amazing things.

Most of these five messages are inter-changable for any state that prohibits out-of-state retailers from shipping in.