UPS stops shipping wine to Washington State

Up until today, the hadn’t enforced this. I had shipment reach the UPS warehouse in my town, then returned it to the wine store. They sent me an email saying the store had requested it back. While we can debate the legitimacy of this anticompetitive law, UPS’s clumsy rollout is indefensible. They let it reach its destination city, then reversed it and blamed the sender.

UPS may have notified the sender that it was going to just sit there or even be destroyed.

Was this shipment from a winery or a retailer? Was it merely passing through the warehouse to your delivery address or was it being held there in anticipation of being picked up?

I have a feeling I missed something. Is UPS not delivering wine to WA?? What about FedEx?

UPS delivers wine to WA. However, they deliver wine from wineries (in-state and out-of-state) and in-state retailers. Their policy is not to accept wine from out-of-state retailers to WA consumers. That isn’t new, but enforcement of it may be spotty.

Brian H, from Warren’s reference to ‘the store’ requesting it back, one can assume it was a retailer, therefore not per UPS policy. I’m sure Warren will correct me if I’m wrong.

I guess I’ve been lucky in the past. I do ship wine to my office, so perhaps that helps (b2b)? Anyway, one more thing to watch out for… Thanks for the info.

Hmmmm, indefensible. Most likely either UPS or the shipper just received a cease and desist from Washington mentioning some very serious consequences for continuing with such shipments, and the timing of your orders was unfortunate. What they’re saying is probably true; it was probably the shipper who asked for it back. If you want to blame someone, blame your state legislators. This is not the fault of UPS. This sort of thing is happening in a lot of states that didn’t previously enforce these laws.

You know our society: it’s always blame the victim.

Is someone blaming Warren?

Let your state representative know you want the law changed in WA. Hard to know how seriously they take it when there are lots of other issues to deal with, but they won’t do anything unless the people are bugging them.

This is simply going to be a much bigger issue moving forward - and in many more states.

As others have pointed out, there are plenty of laws that had not been enforced in the past but are now beginning to be in earnest. It’s tough to blame anyone because most wineries and retailers are assuming it’s ‘business as usual’ but it’s obviously not.

Cheers.

This was an out of state retailer shipping to my business address. As I understand it, the package was picked up by UPS at the wine store with an alcohol sticker attached. Clearly, the timing was bad, but it seems to me the shipment should have been refused from the start rather than sent on a round trip journey. Maybe “indefensible” was too strong a word. How about “clumsy rollout”?
I will contact my state representatives. I buy plenty locally, but rely on out of state retailers for wines I have trouble accessing here.

It begs the question.

Given the circumstances, Warren, it sounds like you have not been able to find what you want from WA retailers. Is this just because WA retailers don’t have the best prices, selection, or do you just have a preference for certain out of state retailers? As a fellow Washingtonian, I don’t buy from online retailers so I don’t really know what’s out there but I am an interested party.

Is fedex impacted? This sounds troubling.

By definition. This is about enforcement of state laws.

This will work a lot better if you can include a $100,000 campaign contribution, to try and counter the wholesaler’s lobby

Did the retailer offer any explanation?

Scott, it’s tough finding non-mass market CA wine locally in WA. Let’s say I was interested in buying some popular WB forum producers, such as Myriad or Rivers-Marie. You won’t find them at local independent Seattle stores, much less at the big boys, like TW. But KL and others usually have something in stock, including auctions. It’s just a much richer selection the closer you get to the producer. Yeah, maybe I could order them locally, but then it moves away from a thought out, researched buy to a more think-fast transaction in front of a judging burgundy loving store clerk (sorry, was that redundant? ). My experience is that the local WA stores stock the same WA wine and a few standard CA bottles. I guess it’s clear we’re all drinking our WA kool-aid (cough, sorry), but for everything else… well…

The key is to call both your representatives and make your case using your own story. You can tell him that a bill would garner significant support from Washington consumers.

Agree with what Brian said. I do a good portion of my retail spend out of state. Pricing is better, selection is better, and the better retail stores around here are not super convenient for me to get to, and I have yet to find a local retailer with a good online store.