Agreed. Nice idea, but it doesn't acknowledge the current reality of our complete descent into fascism and oligarchy. No fightback or workarounds at the state level will be tolerated...and they will be snuffed out with dispatch.
I don’t think any proposal to help the wine industry can address those issues. Moreover, avoiding proposals to help the industry because they may not address larger political issues means never proposing any solutions.
I may not have been too clear there. My point is that the country's descent into fascism and oligarchy will simply snuff out any attempt to effect solutions at the state level. The lobbying influence and straight-out strong-arming of SG and its ilk are more intense and pervasive at the state level than they are at the federal.
I don't think the Trump administration or Tariffs have any impact on the disposition of wholesalers, nor on their disregard for free and fair markets. They demonstrated where they stand on these issues under Biden, Trump I, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush I and Reagan.
the tariffs were precisely intended to exploit the situation you describe by inducing individual wholesalers who are so inclined to bribe the administration and pledge loyalty to trunt to gain exceptions and exemptions from tariffs.
While I have long been a proponent of gradually reducing the reliance on the three tier system, eliminating it suddenly will not solve the immediate problem of rising prices caused by tariffs. The problem is not that simplistic. The three tier system functions to provide sales support and personnel for both importers and wineries. Importets and wineries seldom have the staff required to promote, sell, and distribute/deliver wines to retailers and restsuraturs. To do so would involve costly expenditures in hiring and training staff, which would (again) raise prices. I am not a fan of the current distribution system, but it does provide a service for small wineries and importers that they are not currently equipped to handlem reforms are necessary, but they must be planned more carefully than this.
The three tier system does not “function to provide sales support and personnel for both wineries and importers”. It exists to funnel wine through a middleman by legal mandate. Allowing suppliers and retailers to go around wholesalers does not mean the end of wholesalers. It means suppliers and retailers can do business directly with one another where profitable. Without a mandate that suppliers and retailers use wholesalers, wholesalers can still sell their services.
within a year, there won't be any small wineries or small importers still in business...unless the proprietors are independently wealthy and can sustain losses for years into the future.
If tariffs last a long while and if the state governments take no action to mitigate the problems they pose for importers, restaurants, retailers and consumers, then yes, we will see some producers and importers and retailers struggle and even close up shop. However, we will still have loads and loads and loads of these businesses.
You really think Southern Glazer's will allow this to happen? Their CEO has been Trunt's biggest campaign donor in the beverage industry since 2015, and SG already has tariff exemptions and exceptions (with more relief likely coming their way). They likely have had a large say in the crafting of wine tariff policy, and anything that doesn't 100% advantage them going forward will simply be snuffed out at the federal AND state level.
What an anti consumer and anti-industry powerhouse like SG would do or say in response to this proposal is not a reason to not propose it. Better to get them on the record that their bottom line is more important than every other player in the industry and of consumers.
Not saying don't propose it. However, any state-level legislation that runs counter to their interests is going to be DOA (if the legislation even makes it through committee).
And if their actions over the past decades haven't put them prominently on the record as being completely self-interested, self-dealing and corrupt actors, I don't know what will.
The goal of any large capitalist enterprise is to destroy the competition, capture its regulator, then become its own regulator. Gonna be real hard to unwind all that.
Genius
Good luck with that 👍🍷
Agreed. Nice idea, but it doesn't acknowledge the current reality of our complete descent into fascism and oligarchy. No fightback or workarounds at the state level will be tolerated...and they will be snuffed out with dispatch.
I don’t think any proposal to help the wine industry can address those issues. Moreover, avoiding proposals to help the industry because they may not address larger political issues means never proposing any solutions.
I may not have been too clear there. My point is that the country's descent into fascism and oligarchy will simply snuff out any attempt to effect solutions at the state level. The lobbying influence and straight-out strong-arming of SG and its ilk are more intense and pervasive at the state level than they are at the federal.
I don't think the Trump administration or Tariffs have any impact on the disposition of wholesalers, nor on their disregard for free and fair markets. They demonstrated where they stand on these issues under Biden, Trump I, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush I and Reagan.
the tariffs were precisely intended to exploit the situation you describe by inducing individual wholesalers who are so inclined to bribe the administration and pledge loyalty to trunt to gain exceptions and exemptions from tariffs.
What exemptions are you referring to?
While I have long been a proponent of gradually reducing the reliance on the three tier system, eliminating it suddenly will not solve the immediate problem of rising prices caused by tariffs. The problem is not that simplistic. The three tier system functions to provide sales support and personnel for both importers and wineries. Importets and wineries seldom have the staff required to promote, sell, and distribute/deliver wines to retailers and restsuraturs. To do so would involve costly expenditures in hiring and training staff, which would (again) raise prices. I am not a fan of the current distribution system, but it does provide a service for small wineries and importers that they are not currently equipped to handlem reforms are necessary, but they must be planned more carefully than this.
The three tier system does not “function to provide sales support and personnel for both wineries and importers”. It exists to funnel wine through a middleman by legal mandate. Allowing suppliers and retailers to go around wholesalers does not mean the end of wholesalers. It means suppliers and retailers can do business directly with one another where profitable. Without a mandate that suppliers and retailers use wholesalers, wholesalers can still sell their services.
Exactly.
within a year, there won't be any small wineries or small importers still in business...unless the proprietors are independently wealthy and can sustain losses for years into the future.
If tariffs last a long while and if the state governments take no action to mitigate the problems they pose for importers, restaurants, retailers and consumers, then yes, we will see some producers and importers and retailers struggle and even close up shop. However, we will still have loads and loads and loads of these businesses.
You really think Southern Glazer's will allow this to happen? Their CEO has been Trunt's biggest campaign donor in the beverage industry since 2015, and SG already has tariff exemptions and exceptions (with more relief likely coming their way). They likely have had a large say in the crafting of wine tariff policy, and anything that doesn't 100% advantage them going forward will simply be snuffed out at the federal AND state level.
What an anti consumer and anti-industry powerhouse like SG would do or say in response to this proposal is not a reason to not propose it. Better to get them on the record that their bottom line is more important than every other player in the industry and of consumers.
Not saying don't propose it. However, any state-level legislation that runs counter to their interests is going to be DOA (if the legislation even makes it through committee).
And if their actions over the past decades haven't put them prominently on the record as being completely self-interested, self-dealing and corrupt actors, I don't know what will.
The goal of any large capitalist enterprise is to destroy the competition, capture its regulator, then become its own regulator. Gonna be real hard to unwind all that.
It's just too sensible. Americans don't do sensible as we have recently seen.
sounds like you are only concerned about imports