Will Congress Vote for Booze-by-Mail?

July 23, 2015 – Almost two years ago to the day, we wrote about the Postmaster General’s high hopes that the struggling US Postal Service would be allowed to deliver beer, wine and spirits. The Senate had passed a postal reform bill in 2012 but it died on the vine somewhere along the way.

A new bill, the USPS Shipping Equity Act, has been introduced by Jackie Speier (D) California to overturn the existing law dating back to 1909. Let’s see, there’s been a few changes in the last 106 years but don’t let’s rush into anything.

The Post Office would like to have a level playing field with private delivery services such as FedEx and UPS but because State law trumps Federal law in the case of alcohol, there will still be states that won’t go along. Campaign contributions count, don’t you know, and while the craft brewers are generally supportive, wholesalers aren’t since it will cut into their business. In some states, if a winery, brewery or spirits producer wants to send samples to a customer, they have to go through the wholesaler. With the new law they could mail samples to retailers or restaurateurs as well as consumers making the business of doing business just a little easier. Arcane is a good word to describe alcohol beverage laws. So is Stupid.