by Taylor Cram
Please read Tom Wark’s blog, Fermentation: http://fermentation.typepad.com
He is hard at work educating wine consumers, retailers, and specialty wholesale companies about the potential devastating H.R. 5034 congressional bill. It is a bill that is being ‘bought’ by massive wholesale companies to restrict consumer access to wine stores across the country. They want to make it so you can only buy your wine from the local in-state store. The consumer will ultimately lose with less selection and choice. The law has recently been rewritten to allow wineries to sell across the country but restrict retailers from selling across the country. Isn’t that sending the message that it should be legal to ship wine, but only when it from the producer. Clearly retailers should not be afforded a similar customer base. Basically they want to make it more difficult for retailers to survive in order to ‘protect’ their ‘rightful’ in-state sales.
What this boils down to is money and protectionism. The wholesalers want to control where consumers buy their goods in order to protect their bottle line. They want Congress to sign off on a deal to help ensure their profits. It is not designed to benefit anybody but the wholesale companies. Please read Tom’s blog to get more in depth with the bill and its implications.
Please write to your local congressmen and tell them to defeat H.R. 5034. It is better for the consumer.
