New York Wine & Spirits Shops Muster to Defend Their Livelihood Against Lobbying Attack from Amazon
Leaked Memo Reveals Secret Lobbying Effort by Amazon to Monopolize U.S. Liquor Market
Amazon Plan to “Modernize” Industry will Weaken Liquor Laws, Shutter Small Business, and Increase Teen Drinking
Albany, NY – March 8, 2023 – Today, the New York State Liquor Store Association, the Metropolitan Package Store Association, and the Retailers Alliance, representing approximately 3,500 wine & spirits shop owners throughout New York State, gathered in Albany to fight back against plans to destroy their livelihood. Proposals introduced over the past few years to weaken the state liquor law by allowing direct-to-consumer shipping among other misguided plans will lead to the closure of countless multi-generational, family-owned New York shops and increase underage drinking. The effort comes on the heels of a new report revealing Amazon’s secret lobbying plans to monopolize the U.S. alcohol supply chain with a specific focus on New York.
“The coordinated assault on our family businesses by Amazon, Wal-Mart and other global giants must stop and we are calling on our elected representatives to stand up with us and fight,” said Stefan Kalogridis, owner of Colvin Wine Merchants in Albany and president of the New York State Liquor Store Association. “We now see, black and white in Amazon’s own cynical playbook, how they exploited the pandemic as an opportunity while our businesses struggled to make ends meet and now they are working in our statehouses to try and finish us off. We won’t go down without a fight.”
New York’s three-tiered system of managing the supply chain for alcoholic beverages has worked for the state for almost a century, providing checks and balances to prevent any business from controlling the market. This system protects consumers, provides oversight to prevent smuggling and counterfeit, and ensures tax revenue. Direct-to-consumer shipping of alcohol will destroy these safeguards, hurting our economy and our community. Recent research estimates that direct-to-consumer shipping will cost New York State 1,857 jobs and $125,942,571 in wages, shrinking New York’s economy by $370,914,777.
Michael Correra, owner of Michael-Towne Wines and Spirits in Brooklyn Heights and executive director of the Metropolitan Package Store Association, said, “As a third generation liquor store owner, my family has fought for nearly a century to keep our business alive through economic hardship and most recently a pandemic and we are still struggling to recover to full strength. Our elected representatives have stood up with our communities in the past to protect us from rich and powerful special interests who want to shut us down. It’s time for them to support us and protect New York’s small business community.”
Jeff Saunders, owner of McCabe’s Wine & Spirits in Manhattan and president of the Retailers Alliance, said, “As local entrepreneurs who have served our communities for generations we are part of the neighborhoods we serve and we take that responsibility seriously. Big box stores like Wal-Mart and tech giants like Amazon who don’t care about our families have made us the last store left on Main Street and now they want to eliminate us entirely.”
Direct-to-consumer alcohol shipping not only hurts small businesses and the state economy, it fuels illegal underage alcohol consumption. Recent investigations by the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) highlight how direct-to-consumer alcohol shipping makes it easier for teens to access alcohol. Compliance checks conducted in 2022 revealed that 96% of licensed shippers accepted orders and payment from a 15-year old. Despite the fact that 98% of shipments were labeled as “alcohol,” 23% of shipments were left at the door, 43% did not obtain an adult signature, and zero verified the age of the recipient when the shipment arrived.
In a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, only 12% of online alcohol orders placed by underage purchasers were rejected as a result of age verification and 45% of orders placed by underage purchasers were successfully received.
New York’s Wine & Spirits Community Is an Economic Engine for Our State
Over 50,000 people throughout New York State work hard and make a living in the wine and spirits industry. From mixologists to wholesalers to transportation and logistics experts and the workers in small neighborhood wine shops, there’s a diverse community of neighbors and family-owned companies that safely deliver wine & spirits to New Yorkers every day. These essential businesses provide significant economic and social benefits throughout the entire region, ensure product quality, and help maintain a legal environment for safe consumption.
