Virginia's New Bootleggers - Coming to State Near You?

[B.B. Babington]

Virginia's retail system has deteriorated to near non-functional for those seeking premiums.  

 

Before it got this bad, I considered applying for ABC position that looked fun, director of media marketing.  I'm WAY WAY overqualified for the position so had good shot, but salary offered not enough to entice me out of retirement.  

 

Jim Vorel, whiskey and spirits reviewer out of Virginia, wrote informative article for Paste last April, and all of his allegations have since proven true. The Entire State of Virginia Has Apparently Stopped Selling Allocated Bourbon Brands - Paste (pastemagazine.com)

 

ABC's current "drop" system is ridiculous.  ABC lets stores and customers know spontaneously, drop of hat, when allocated at a particular store available for sale.  ABC thinks people don't know ahead, false.  Some in know sitting in parking lot waiting for drop.  Before, we had orderly lines outside a store.  Now we have demolition derby 70 mph thru stoplights and as many as 150 people showing up for unknown bottles.  Many not walking into store, and those that walk in come out empty handed.  If ABC thought bait and switch ploy would increase sales, nope.  Just the reverse.  People now forgetting ABC and going out of state or to flippers.  

 

I was out of town for a drop, but went by the store just to see what was left.  Nothing.  And manager apologized because they had near nothing to start.  Furthermore, this was in ... ah ... different part of town and I was accosted by several gentlemen with holes in pants.  Not again.  To make it worse, ABC sends out an email saying some notifications that day were fraudulent and that scammers had no idea of time and place of drops.  Well, I don't know about that, but there was notification of a 1:45 pm drop at two stores in my area, people went and purchased, but I didn't get the official notification till almost 4 pm, so WTF?  The ABC apology letter was full of errors, or AKA LIES.  Retail employees are ordered to lie to customers on pain of dismissal so lying modus operandi.

 

Now flippers looking to bring it in from other states by pickup truck load, how do prices compare?  ABC retails ECBP for $70 and you have to fight to get it, might get lucky for a bottle or perhaps not.  Limited to 1 bottle.  Flippers $90/each as many as ya want.

 

I've been a loyal major financial supporter of ABC for decades.  Given MASSIVE amounts of money.  I'm type of guy that sees nice bottle for $1k and then takes two.  This new drop system specifically targets against me.  They say so explicitly in writing.  It's a big middle finger bird thrown at me.

 

How does this effect you?  Other states watching to see how it works out.  Good luck.

[Bourbon Scout]

NC is just a bit worse.  There is no notification.  You put your name and number on a card.  You hope your in good terms with store manager and they call you when the alloted product comes in.

 

In other words if your not kissing the managers ass...your not getting anything unless it's on the shelf.

 

At least VA sends an email.

[Anwalt]

 

10 hours ago, B.B. Babington said:

Virginia's retail system has deteriorated to near non-functional for those seeking premiums.  

 

Sounds like Latin-style "governance", aka corruption.  The government runs everything.  In the case of Latin America, it's always been that way; we in the Anglo world should know better.

 

Who you know matters a lot.  A whole lot.  Know someone?  Things get done, after a fashion.  Don't know someone?  Too bad. 

 

And of course the lies, the constant lies.  Latins do lie politely, smiling to you, because it is rude to say "no" and so you have to simply know when "yes" means "yes" and when "yes" means "No, though I do not wish to utter that word".

 

It'll lead to smuggling, as you point out.  I wonder, if similar to NYC, people will be criminalized for the bourbon equivalent of selling cigarettes on the street?

 

How unfortunate.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Anwalt

[Bourserker]

I appreciate your rant, a lot of good info there for a fellow VA resident.  I was on a "hiatus" for the last 2 years with the pandemic and bought the sum total of 2 bottles of OGD 114 during that period of time.  So I was out of the loop as to what was going on in our stores.  Along with the details you provided and some other stuff I've been reading recently on reddit and some other sites, it sounds like things are just absolutely ridiculous here. 

 

It was funny because I recently started buying again to fill some holes in the depleted bunker.  I remember one day I was out doing some errands and was like what the heck I'll go grab a few bottles.  I was pulling into the parking lot oblivious to the time and there was a line outside the store.  I look at the time and it was close to noon (the stores used to open at like 9 or 10 so that was a new one on me).  Anyway, I asked the employee what was going on when I went to pay and she told me that's normal now as people are trying to get things like regular old BT.

 

So needless to say, I'm just staying out of this whole thing until it blows over.  There's enough stuff I like that's readily available that I'm not gonna wait in line, rush to a drop or whatever else to get something.  However, if you get a tip on when one of those pickups is rolling through let me know...ha ha ha.

[mbroo5880i]

This just makes me happy that I live Indiana where we don't have to deal with state ran liquor stores or state minimum pricing.  Sure, there are distributor and retailer shenanigans but if I am unhappy about options, I can drive down the road.

[fishnbowljoe]

5 minutes ago, mbroo5880i said:

This just makes me happy that I live Indiana where we don't have to deal with state ran liquor stores or state minimum pricing.  Sure, there are distributor and retailer shenanigans but if I am unhappy about options, I can drive down the road.

Just don’t drive down the road to Illinois @mbroo5880i.

 

Biba! Joe

[mbroo5880i]

1 minute ago, fishnbowljoe said:

Just don’t drive down the road to Illinois @mbroo5880i.

 

Biba! Joe

 

I occasionally hit Binny's when traveling through IL or KY stores when traveling through KY.  Free enterprise.  If its there and you want it, you can buy it.

 

I rarely hit an OH store when traveling through OH or an MI store when traveling through MI.  State controlled or minimum pricing crap.

 

On a side note, I wish we would get a Binny's in Indy.  I get store pick and sale emails all the time.  Does @Lost Pollito still work for them?

[fishnbowljoe]

29 minutes ago, mbroo5880i said:

 

I occasionally hit Binny's when traveling through IL or KY stores when traveling through KY.  Free enterprise.  If its there and you want it, you can buy it.

 

I rarely hit an OH store when traveling through OH or an MI store when traveling through MI.  State controlled or minimum pricing crap.

 

On a side note, I wish we would get a Binny's in Indy.  I get store pick and sale emails all the time.  Does @Lost Pollito still work for them?

I hope Indy gets a Binny’s or two. The store here is okay. A lot of people, myself included, were all excited when they first opened. Now it’s basically just another liquor store, just bigger. Binny’s is also an excuse for many of the liquors stores here to use as to why they don’t get any of “the good stuff”. Last but not least, since they opened, a fair number of liquor stores here have tuned pretty much tater. Pretty sad. 
 

As for @Lost Pollito, yes he still works for Binny’s.

 

Biba! Joe

[PhantomLamb]

Same or worse here in PA, join the club.

 

As much as I want to believe the hype, no bubble bursting in the next 5 years at least, I just saw the “new” warehouses last month. If more product is on the shelf, it will be inferior IMO.

 

So, crap whiskey faster or unobtanium good whiskey. Good thing I like other spirits and beer.

 

As much as I want to complain, it’s getting me nowhere. Enjoying what I can, recognizing I can’t control the rest, and the people watching turning into madness for brown liquor is good enough.

[fishnbowljoe]

Which warehouses @PhantomLamb? Just curious.

 

Biba! Joe

[mbroo5880i]

19 hours ago, PhantomLamb said:

Same or worse here in PA, join the club.

 

As much as I want to believe the hype, no bubble bursting in the next 5 years at least, I just saw the “new” warehouses last month. If more product is on the shelf, it will be inferior IMO.

 

So, crap whiskey faster or unobtanium good whiskey. Good thing I like other spirits and beer.

 

As much as I want to complain, it’s getting me nowhere. Enjoying what I can, recognizing I can’t control the rest, and the people watching turning into madness for brown liquor is good enough.

 

Are you talking about finished product warehouse or the aging warehouses in KY and elsewhere?  I do agree, this bubble continues to expand.  Eventually all bubbles deflated but that doesn't appear any time soon.

[PhantomLamb]

Aging warehouses at Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill last month.  Sorry for late response .

[fishnbowljoe]

On 5/29/2022 at 11:52 PM, PhantomLamb said:

As much as I want to believe the hype, no bubble bursting in the next 5 years at least, I just saw the “new” warehouses last month. If more product is on the shelf, it will be inferior IMO.

 

 

1 hour ago, PhantomLamb said:

Aging warehouses at Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill last month.  Sorry for late response .

 

Not sure I understand @PhantomLamb. I don’t now much about the goings on at HH. As far as BT goes though, in 2016 they purchased two buildings back from the state and turned them into aging warehouses. They began building new warehouses in 2017, and started filling them in 2018. They now have ten of those new warehouses finished and filled with 58,000 barrels each. IMHO,  I think BT will be okay. 
 

Biba! Joe

[berto]

That’s rough. It’s surprising that booze is one of the few areas in CA that isn’t supremely regulated.  There are issues but they aren’t close to other states.  It’s almost as if CA wants us to be drunk or high so we won’t make noise about everything else.  I hope VA figures out a way to not totally suck for booze.  I get trying to make things fair but they really shut the bed.

[flahute]

56 minutes ago, fishnbowljoe said:

 

 

 

Not sure I understand @PhantomLamb. I don’t now much about the goings on at HH. As far as BT goes though, in 2016 they purchased two buildings back from the state and turned them into aging warehouses. They began building new warehouses in 2017, and started filling them in 2018. They now have ten of those new warehouses finished and filled with 58,000 barrels each. IMHO,  I think BT will be okay. 
 

Biba! Joe

HH has been building new rickhouses on new land for the past 4-5 years as well as expanding on the Bardstown site.

[fishnbowljoe]

13 hours ago, flahute said:

HH has been building new rickhouses on new land for the past 4-5 years as well as expanding on the Bardstown site.

Are they building new warehouses at Deatsville too?

 

Biba! Joe

[Jazzhead]

Much of this is Buffalo Trace hype and I simply won't be a part of it.   So much so that last week I saw a bottle of regular BT for $26.99 and still passed.   So much better stuff out there from WT, OF, Beam and Barton.

[flahute]

13 hours ago, fishnbowljoe said:

Are they building new warehouses at Deatsville too?

 

Biba! Joe

Nothing new at Deatsville so far.

[Kepler]

10 hours ago, berto said:

... It’s almost as if CA wants us to be drunk or high so we won’t make noise about everything else. 

...

 

Bingo  

 

[BottledInBond]

These games in some states make me appreciate that MN doesn’t have any of these systems involved. It’s easy to not get worked up about distribution annoyances as I’m still not really a buyer of whiskey, along with general Bourbon Zen that has has developed. I went to get something for someone else yesterday but still walked the whiskey aisle for the hell of it, and was relatively pleased with some of the stuff I saw on the shelf. 

[Bourbon Scout]

11 hours ago, Jazzhead said:

Much of this is Buffalo Trace hype and I simply won't be a part of it.   So much so that last week I saw a bottle of regular BT for $26.99 and still passed.   So much better stuff out there from WT, OF, Beam and Barton.

Well just keep that quiet or before you know it we won't be able to find any of it.