Local liquor stores have struggled to receive shipments on time since pandemic restrictions began in March 2020, but recently, it has taken some stores two weeks or more to secure shipments of alcohol from the Alcohol Beverage Control.
Mississippi is one of 17 “control” states, meaning that all wholesale liquor sales are funneled through a government controlled agency. If business owners in Mississippi want to purchase alcohol for their stores, they must do so through the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), commonly referred to as the ABC.
Tommy Bruce of the Star Package Store said during the years he has worked there, the store would put in orders and receive shipments from Jackson within one or two days.
“Before this pandemic hit, we could order today and get our stuff tomorrow,” Bruce said. “Now, it’s taken up to 17 days to get an order in. That’s how they have got us handicapped.”
The “handicap,” Bruce said, is that now he must anticipate what alcohol will need to be restocked further in advance. The two and a half week wait prevents him from ordering a product for a customer and receiving it the next day, making it hard to do business.
Bruce said any liquor store in Mississippi would echo the same difficulties.
On Feb. 4, state representatives sent House Bill 997 to the state Senate, where it now waits to be heard. The bill proposes privatizing the sale of alcoholic beverages in the state and would allow for stores to purchase their supplies directly from distributors, rather than through the ABC.
The legislature has attempted to pass bills like it before, but given the degree of backed up shipments, liquor stores are keeping a close eye on Bill 997.
Ryan Copple, manager at Kiamie’s Package Store, said since the beginning of the pandemic, the delivery delays have slowly gotten worse because, in part, of all orders being funneled through the ABC.
“The state said they were going to catch up in September of this past year,” Copple said. “They had started doing bulk shipments, big orders of bigger items all at once, and they thought that was going to catch them up, but it apparently slowed them down even more.”
Copple said if liquor distribution were to become privatized, Kiamie’s would be able to respond better to customers’ needs. The downside of privatization, he said, is that the state would regulate individual stores, rather than the single source of alcohol distribution that is the ABC.
Kiamie’s, among other liquor stores, would also save money by not having to order through the ABC. Alcohol purchased through the state is subject to a 27.5% markup, meaning that if a liquor store purchased one $25 bottle, the ABC would collect roughly $6.88 of that payment.
The new legislation would bring that fee down to 18%, so a store would only pay around $4.50 extra for the $25 bottle.
Though it may not seem like much, according to Rep. Trey Lamar, who drafted Bill 997, the decrease would lower the state’s profit from the ABC markup by around $80 million to $50 million.
“The state is basically the middleman, so they make a bit of a profit through it,” Copple said. “It would actually be cheaper for us to buy from the distributors themselves instead of through the state.”
Along with the issue of anticipating orders like Star Package, some stores also reported that they cannot sufficiently restock as long as the ABC’s daily cap on order quantity continues.
The cap, set at the beginning of the pandemic, limits the amount of alcohol a business can order to a single 100 case shipment per day. Prior to the pandemic, there was no limit.
Elaina Madison, a shift leader at High Cotton Wine and Spirits Warehouse, said that while 100 cases a day sounds high, it depletes quicker than one might expect. Like other stores, High Cotton also remains two weeks behind on shipments.
“You’re only allowed to order so much,” Madison said. “There’s kind of like a queue of orders that we just have to wait on, and if somebody comes in and buys a full case of something, we’re out of stock on it until they finally ship us the rest.”
The owners or workers from each store said they had seen little response from ABC on the issue, but ABC has stated the problem will be resolved.
“Everybody has to order through ABC, and if they don’t have something in the warehouse, then you can’t order it,” Madison said. “They ship everything through Mississippi, so if they’re behind, everybody kind of has to deal with the backlash of that.”
