Retailers/Winemakers - 'WineBerserkers Exclusives

Commerce Corner - Wine Classifieds
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Welcome to the Berserker Board Brent! Great seeing you in the shop last week.

You’re correct that this is technically illegal for many retailers. Most probably don’t realize it.

In MA this falls under the “inducement” clause of the alcohol sales/distribution legislation. This covers using any means of coercing alcohol sales using tie-in offers (must be a regular WB user). Also, it is illegal in MA to offer alcoholic beverages to some consumers and not others (WB users only). In addition, it is currently illegal to ship alcohol across the MA state borders (I could sell to Zach and PMC if the first two factors didn’t exist).

So, I can’t take part in this idea, as cool as it may sound. Sorry.

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It is illegal here in NM, and I would guess every state. You cannot tie membership to alcohol sales among other restrictions/laws.

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Which is why it would be best to limit Commerce Corner to members. Then only they would see the offers. You would not limit the sale to Beserkers members, but the practical effect would be that only Bersekers would see the offers. And the law does allow you to advertise, which is what this would be.

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May I ask then if a winery’s mailing list doesn’t do exactly that? [dontknow.gif]

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Bruce, it would take just one “customer” to blow the whistle. Our business could lose its license to sell alcohol, thereby jeopardizing the jobs of nearly 100 employees.
No thanks.

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Exactly what I find ironic in this ‘law’.

In any case, if someone asks for the WB-exclusive price, let the retailers/winemakers offer it to them, however, I just today made this forum private, and non-indexing. No bots or guests can see the posts within, and before we freak about about seeing a bot on the bottom as ‘viewing’, it doesn’t mean anything, as the bot can be on the page, but can’t view the posts/threads - all they would ‘see’ is ‘you are not authorized to view this page’.

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I’m not exactly sure. Alcohol laws are strange on a good day.

What I know is that for CostCo and Sam’s, they tried to say “only members can come in and buy”. Taht was struck down. Now anyone can walk into CostCo or Sam’s, they are not required to have a membership, and can freely purchase any alcohol.

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Peter,

I don’t see what they would blow the whistle on. Is there some law preventing you from advertising in a limited distribution newspaper or other medium? As long as you don’t limit sales to members of the board, it isn’t your problem that the general public does not read the board.

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I think that is because membership to those clubs cost money.

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At the risk of sounding like a jerk, who cares if a MA retailer doesn’t get to participate in this concept?? In all my wine web-searches I’ve never found a MA retailer offering me something I can’t resist buying. Certain states allow a lot more flexibility in shipping/selling wine than others. You should be the first one who realizes that you don’t have the same options as wine shops in other locations. Oh well, get used to it…I know I have. So if your state’s laws don’t allow you to partake in this proposed project just move on…just my 2 cents…

And Todd, thank you for making the CC section “members only”. It makes a lot of sense for many reasons. Good call.

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[notworthy.gif] [notworthy.gif]

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Which is why I said I would not take part even though the concept sounded cool. I, singular. A question followed which prompted a further response from yours truly. I wasn’t arguing against the original idea in any way whatsoever. [emot-words.gif] hehehe no worries.
On the other point, most of the great MA price deals won’t appear on a web search since the shop in question either doesn’t have a website or simply wishes to avoid telling dozens of out-of-state customers that shipping is illegal, so the offer is store-only. My store’s “email specials” are priced to compete with the lowest in the country. Still can’t ship. Sucks. [shrug.gif]

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That does suck. Good to know if I find myself traveling through MA at some time in the future. When I don’t see retailers from a particular state show up on WineSearcher searches I tend to assume it’s just not a state where good wine widely appreciated.

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Massachusetts has one particularly nice feature with regard to wine: No sales tax on wine! Apparently it’s considered an essential like food and clothing!

Nice for me because I can get there fairly easily.

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Ken…not for long - we are soon to be taxed on wine!

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yay…
woohoo…
[help.gif]

I see New Hampshire’s border store sales increasing dramatically in the very near future.

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They’re going to add sales tax, but still not allow shipping?

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Peter,

I wouldn’t be too sure of that. Over the last year their prices have steadily increased to the point that they’re laughabley high in many instances like $235 for a half bottle of 05’ D’Yquem. As a result, I bought very little there since the price hikes and have found more and more MA retailers who are very competitive and are also way more knowledgible on what they are selling. The best most NH sales people can tell you is that a bottle of bordeaux is french, they think.

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I hope to agree with you on fine wine sales, but the businesses along the border depend upon 30-packs of cheap beer and brand-label wine to compete with NH. The horns of dilemma: lower your prices to stay competitive or lose sales over the border. Either path leads to stores closing in the long term.

I’m going to start a thread elsewhere so we don’t clutter up this one with tax chat.