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Nothing Amazon does makes sense immediately. Only in hindsight does the strategy emerge. What would be also helpful would be for Amazon to disrupt the wine and

by balozi 9y ago

Nothing Amazon does makes sense immediately. Only in hindsight does the strategy emerge. What would be also helpful would be for Amazon to disrupt the wine and liquor sector.

tantalor 9y ago
> disrupt the wine and liquor sector Explain?
- spydum 9y ago
  Maybe they mean the inefficiency in the producer -> distributor-> retailer chain? What value does the middle guy add?
  - dx034 9y ago
    Aldi/Lidl will make sure that happens. They already buy directly from producers around the world (they are the biggest wine retailer in Germany and quite big in some other European countries) so they'll just use the same producers for their US business. From experience Aldi is quite good when it comes to wine in the middle price segment. Often 20-30% cheaper than comparable wines in other stores.
  - op00to 9y ago
    Would require an insane amount of political lobbying to get rid of the legally obligated three tier system. Maybe Amazon has the $$ to do that?
  - ohyes 9y ago
    Liquor is heavily regulated on a state by state basis. The distributor relationship is often required by law.
    - Danihan 9y ago
      So Amazon will create a spin off a distributor company
      - ohyes 9y ago
        Yeah, that might work. It appears to be very political/corrupt in Massachusetts at least. It doesn't really matter what liquor store you go to as prices are basically fixed here. They'd have to get the distributor license approved, and a separate retail license... and then (I think) a single company is allowed no more than 3 retail locations in the state. Anyway, I agree there's a lot of bullshit that adds to the cost of alcohol, and does make it look ripe for disruption, but I suspect there'd also have to be a lobbying effort to get the laws changed on a state by state basis (for it to be scalable), and whoever was trying to get the laws changed would be facing the alcoholic beverage industry lobby, who are also a fairly powerful/entrenched group.

by balozi 9y ago

Nothing Amazon does makes sense immediately. Only in hindsight does the strategy emerge. What would be also helpful would be for Amazon to disrupt the wine and liquor sector.

tantalor 9y ago

> disrupt the wine and liquor sector Explain?

spydum 9y ago
Maybe they mean the inefficiency in the producer -> distributor-> retailer chain? What value does the middle guy add?
- dx034 9y ago
  Aldi/Lidl will make sure that happens. They already buy directly from producers around the world (they are the biggest wine retailer in Germany and quite big in some other European countries) so they'll just use the same producers for their US business. From experience Aldi is quite good when it comes to wine in the middle price segment. Often 20-30% cheaper than comparable wines in other stores.
- op00to 9y ago
  Would require an insane amount of political lobbying to get rid of the legally obligated three tier system. Maybe Amazon has the $$ to do that?
- ohyes 9y ago
  Liquor is heavily regulated on a state by state basis. The distributor relationship is often required by law.
  - Danihan 9y ago
    So Amazon will create a spin off a distributor company
    - ohyes 9y ago
      Yeah, that might work. It appears to be very political/corrupt in Massachusetts at least. It doesn't really matter what liquor store you go to as prices are basically fixed here. They'd have to get the distributor license approved, and a separate retail license... and then (I think) a single company is allowed no more than 3 retail locations in the state. Anyway, I agree there's a lot of bullshit that adds to the cost of alcohol, and does make it look ripe for disruption, but I suspect there'd also have to be a lobbying effort to get the laws changed on a state by state basis (for it to be scalable), and whoever was trying to get the laws changed would be facing the alcoholic beverage industry lobby, who are also a fairly powerful/entrenched group.