"alcohol shipping laws" news and stories

After Prohibition, individual states were allowed to set up their own legislation to regulate "demon drink," resulting in 50 different sets of rules for production and distribution. In most states, retailers (bars, restaurants, and liquor stores) and individual consumers were not allowed to purchase directly from producers in other states. Distilleries and wineries could only get their products to customers in other states by selling their merchandise to a wholesaler, meaning that wholesalers controlled what selections were available to the public in each state. Nothing could be sold without the wholesaler's willingness to purchase it and resell it. This system is known as the three-tier network: producer to wholesaler to retailer.

One of the ironies of this system is that that some members of the middle tier of the distribution chain were bootlegging before Prohibition. After Prohibition, their controlling power was still locked in place as the wholesale middleman in the three tier network. The situation becomes more alarming with about ten large wholesalers controlling more than half of the US market.