Question 3... I'm confused (sales, home, buying)

[mdovell]

Personally I think they are trying to do too much in this and it will probably not happen. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you raise the liquor licenses the marijuana licenses are linked to it as well. I don't think automatic check out is that big of a deal but there already is consolidation in the industry. We can talk about protecting liquor stores but I think that's generally fading. It's nearly a commodity at this point.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Personally I think they are trying to do too much in this and it will probably not happen. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you raise the liquor licenses the marijuana licenses are linked to it as well. I don't think automatic check out is that big of a deal but there already is consolidation in the industry. We can talk about protecting liquor stores but I think that's generally fading. It's nearly a commodity at this point.

Corner packies are howling about it so I'm all for it - more Total Wine-type places, fewer alkie hangouts peddling nips, scratchies and cigs!

[jtolpin]

I think its more Total Wines, and less corner package stores.

Better prices for consumers, but less mom/pop places.

Im thinking of voting yes.

[jayrandom]

Seems designed to make it harder for grocery stores, which is where I get my beer and wine. Specifically these provisions:

prohibit in-store automated or self-checkout sales of alcohol;

change the formula used to calculate fines by using gross profits on all retail sales rather than the gross profits on the sale of alcohol;

I'm voting no.

[inquisitive2]

Vote no on all questions!

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Corner packies are howling about it so I'm all for it - more Total Wine-type places, fewer alkie hangouts peddling nips, scratchies and cigs!

Yeah. I hunt bourbon bottles for fun so I'm on a lot of liquor store email lists. Total Wine is definitely against this question and they want you to vote "no" and all the local liquor stores want you to vote "yes." I guess the crux of it is that the bill still limits the number of liquor licenses one entity can hold. The local stores don't love the bill but they look at it as a compromise that keeps them in business. Total Wine is hoping it doesn't pass so that they can then get a repeal of the law that limits liquor licenses held by one entity so that they can expand unfettered and take over the state basically. I had heard this and it's been confirmed to me by TW employees that TW's MO is to basically enter a new market, lobby to change any liquor laws to their advantage, cut prices below cost if necessary for up to 10 years to put the competition out of business, and then raise prices when they're the last man standing.

Personally, I have no great love for local liquor stores. In the bourbon hunting game, TW is usually the one charging a reasonable price for bourbon whereas the local liquor stores mark up hard to find bottles to many multiples of MSRP (think TW charges $60 and a local store will have the same bottle for $300). I like the larger local chains like Yankee Spirits, Luke's Liquors, etc. but they often play favorites with customers and I find that quite annoying. Just put the bottles out on the shelf for a fair price and let whoever walks in buy them. For the most part, this is how TW operates and I do end up doing most of my buying there.

[robr2]

WRT the bourbon hunting, the local stores charging high prices is simply part of the game. I have a couple of friends who bourbon hunt and they do so for the potential profit. Why should the retail store let someone buy a bottle for $60 just to resell it for $300? AFAIK, there's no law preventing the store from selling at "market value."

I know a package store owner in CT who keeps most of their special spirits aside and calls a list of known customers who buy to enjoy not to resell. When the list is exhausted, he puts the rest out at a slightly higher markup.

[BostonMike7]

TW tends to be the only place I can find a lot of my favorite, but uncommon Scotch Whiskey's that I can't find elsewhere other than your standard 12-years. As a result, outside of my usual IPA/Brewery runs, i default to TW just to get that hard-to-find selection.

[lrfox]

prohibit in-store automated or self-checkout sales of alcohol;

While this certainly isn't big enough of an issue to sway my vote, I don't have any problem with this stipulation. The self checkouts are (theoretically) supposed to speed up the checkout process. Each time someone scans a bottle or case of booze, the checkout kiosk's help light flashes and a store employee has to come over and enter a code saying they verified the customer's age before the person can scan again. This happens for each alcoholic item scanned. When someone has a couple of 12 packs and a few bottles of wine, it can really slow things down and pull the self-checkout monitor away from helping other people (or the customer has stand there like an idiot if the employee is helping someone else). I use self-checkout 90% of the time when I'm shopping, but whenever I'm at Wegmans and buying booze, I always go to the normal checkout line (the lines tend to be shorter over towards the booze anyway). It's easier for me and it causes less of a logjam in the self checkout.

The self checkout is often like an episode of Boiling Points between the people who try to scan 3 cart's worth of groceries and/or the people who struggle with technology and need assistance every two seconds. So anything that can reduce the chances of a slowdown is going to be a positive in my book.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by robr2

WRT the bourbon hunting, the local stores charging high prices is simply part of the game. I have a couple of friends who bourbon hunt and they do so for the potential profit. Why should the retail store let someone buy a bottle for $60 just to resell it for $300? AFAIK, there's no law preventing the store from selling at "market value."

I know a package store owner in CT who keeps most of their special spirits aside and calls a list of known customers who buy to enjoy not to resell. When the list is exhausted, he puts the rest out at a slightly higher markup.

The whole bourbon hunting game is F'ed. I'm not too keen on what your friends are doing either and the people who collect bourbon like baseball cards are on my s-list too. I just want to buy some good spirits to take home and enjoy or share with friends. People like me who are in this to just get a beverage they enjoy are the ones who are getting the short end of the stick. I'm not one of these guys hoarding 500 bottles 400 of which will probably be on the shelf after they're dead.

I totally agree with you that it's not illegal for a store to mark up prices (at least not here in MA). However, it is illegal to do what your friends are doing (reselling alcohol) unless they're doing it through an authorized reseller like Unicorn Auctions for example. However, my guess is they're not doing that.

Alcohol was meant to be enjoyed. It's incredibly annoying how so many things in life have been turned into an asset to make money off of.