mailing bourbon

[BourbonGuy]

Have the laws regarding the shipping of alcohol changed a lot recently?  I used to get bourbons I could not get local through internet sites.  Now, no one while ship to NY.  What changed?

Are the laws different for wines that for bourbon?  I found a few sites that sold Smooth Ambler.  None would ship.

[dcbt]

Shipping laws vary by state so you'd have to check into any NY state changes.  But there are typically different laws for wine and liquor, as absurd as that is.

[Kpiz]

As dcbt said, laws vary by state and also by type of alcohol. Because of this, I think it's hard for many retailers to keep track of what they can ship where. Therefore, it's possible that the laws haven't changed but enforcement of current laws has increased; in other words, the retailers you used to buy from may have stopped shipping to NY because the state informed them that they shouldn't be sending alcohol there. Some retailers will ship to a state until they're told not to (the receiving state will send them a cease and desist letter) and perhaps the state of NY, or the shipping company used, has started paying closer attention.

 

It may be worth giving the retailer a call or sending them an e-mail to ask.

[BourbonGuy]

I think I found the answer.  They can ship to NY.  But....

It is, in fact, possible for out-of-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers in New York. But there’s a caveat: out-of-state wine retailers must agree to collect New York sales tax on New York sales.

 

So now it is just too big a PITA to do it.

[BourbonGuy]

But what I still don't understand is that I found a site, in NYS that would ship me wine, but not bourbon.

[amg]

48 minutes ago, BourbonGuy said:

But what I still don't understand is that I found a site, in NYS that would ship me wine, but not bourbon.

There are lots of inconsistent store interpretations of those laws. There are many stores that will ship to me in Indiana and many that won't, even among different stores in the same state. (i.e. Store A in California will ship to me but Store B in California won't)

[MTNBourbon]

48 minutes ago, amg said:

There are lots of inconsistent store interpretations of those laws. There are many stores that will ship to me in Indiana and many that won't, even among different stores in the same state. (i.e. Store A in California will ship to me but Store B in California won't)

When I use to live in UT, I had stores shipping beer to me. Like you said, 2 different stores in one state, one would ship the other wouldn't.

[berto]

50 state laws plus fed law with retailers playing fast and loose depending on their tolerance for risk.

[BDanner]

Some online retailers will ship liquor here to NC, some will not. This leads me to believe that in some cases it is retailers who choose not to for some reason or other.

[amg]

34 minutes ago, BDanner said:

Some online retailers will ship liquor here to NC, some will not. This leads me to believe that in some cases it is retailers who choose not to for some reason or other.

 

Knowing NC, it's probably illegal and some retailers are willing to ignore the law.

[berto]

Here's some info regarding the confusing state of shipping alcohol:

 

http://www.breakingbourbon.com/bourbon-shipping.html

 

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/direct-shipment-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

 

 

[BourbonHawk]

From what I understand it has a lot to do with taxes and keeping track of who pays what.  

For some states, they allow out-of-state retailers to sell booze to their residents as long as the retailers agree to collect the tax on behalf of the state (as someone mentioned above).

For other states, they allow the online purchase/sale of liquor and shipment to their states because the in-resident buyer is on the hook for declaring the tax him/herself.
The states that have privatized liquor tend to be much more lenient about this than those whose liquor is state controlled.
I do buy liquor online from time to time as finding retailers willing to ship to Washington state is fairly common.   As long as their state allows the shipment of liquor outside the respective state of course.  However, from what I've gathered, they must purchase a liquor license in order to lawfully do so.  I don't know how much it costs (can't imagine it's cheap) or what the process to get one actually is.  So let's say it's $1000 for the permit for an out-of-state retailer to sell liquor to Washington state residents.  If the retailer applies for and spends money on the liquor permit but doesn't get a single sale from anyone from within that state, they have given the state $1000 for nothing and would be seen as a loss.
Again, mostly speculation on my part but I think it's something like that. 

[Saul_cooperstein]

I think the recent change in shipping into NYC was driven by NY state sending cease and desist letters to certain retailers and/or certain shippers (such as FedEx) with regard to those same retailers.