The Legislature’s recent attempt to reform Kansas’ overly restrictive wine laws is sure to leave a bad taste in many wine lovers’ mouths: Instead of allowing direct shipments of out-of-state wine to consumers, as was the intent, the new law requires shipments to be sent to a local liquor retailer, who will add a nifty fee — up to $5. For this inconvenience and added cost, thank the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association, which convinced some lawmakers that home shipments could allow minors to order wine.
It’s highly unlikely, however, that underage drinkers would order cases of wine or be caught discussing the relative merits of pinot noir versus merlot. Besides, a majority of states, including Missouri, have been allowing direct shipments without any apparent problems.
State Sen. Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, is probably right that lawmakers will have to fix the law once consumers start complaining.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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42 Comments
Reminds me of the argument furntiure stores used when they repealed the matress tag law…that somehow, taking the tags off of matresses made it harder to prosecute drug cases. And there were legislators who bought that!
Somebody, somewhere will benefit from government regulations that include them as the middle man.
No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving.I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot! …
I am shocked and amazed that the legislature caved to a special interest group.
Want to get payback against the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association? Quit buying booze. That’ll show them.
I quit buying booze years ago.What a terrible, awful, killer drug.I can’t believe the crap is legal.While millions of people kill themselves and others on this deadly addictive drug, we’re busy trying to run homosexuals out of the country.Have a beer, and vote pro-bigotry!
Tracy! Great movie by the way. ;)
I do agree with you that alcohol is a very dangerous drug. It’s health effects when drinking to excess is worse than cigarettes.
Not to mention the amount of people killed in accidents and the victims of violence and crime that are contributed to alcohol.
But it’s best to regulate it and tax it regardless of it’s ill effects, because the alternative of banning it will make it worse. We’ve learned that lesson during prohibition.
Should we do the same to illegal drugs?
Just pot, unless you can think of any others that are relatively safe. I can’t think of any others.For God’s sake think of the rexenue from the pot tax!Millions and millions of Americans already prefer pot over booze already. And they are having their lives and families destroyed by the hypocritical laws and law enforcement, and I’m not talking about down and out hippies, I’m talking about doctors, lawyers, politicians (even presidents), and many good Americans who deserve better REALITY based laws and gov’t.I usually like to remain the class clown on this blog, but damn, I’ve seen to many lives lost to booze.
And I’m not necessarily pro-pot.But I am for less intrusive gov’t and law enforcement.There, I said it!
Joe..I see your point on alcohol being more dangerous than cigarettes, but I can tell you this; my parents both smoked AND drank… but I lost them both to the cigarettes!
TRACY..Legalize and monitor ALL drugs. They will get them anyway.. why not control and TAX the crap out of them??
I know in Utah, the liquor stores are all owned and operated by the state.
I agree Sam, about the evil tobacco.It took me years to quit drinking, and I’m sure it’s saved my life (for now), but I’ve still got the damned cigarettes. They should ban the commercial sales of these evil things. If you want to smoke the shit, you ought to have to do it the same way pot smokers are now.Grow your own, but for God’s sake, don’t pass it around like a joint!
Cigarettes? There is no proof that cigarettes are bad for you – at least according to the industry ‘experts’ ;^)
“I never saw anyone lying in a gutter with a joint in their hand.”
anonymous quote
KSFG, I have probably seen that, but they were in the gutter because of the booze.
Do you ever get the feeling that this entire state is always on “Candid Camera”, or ” Do the Opposite of Them and You’ll Be OK”?
Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association
Well, let’s just talk about these greed, monopolistic bastards, shall we?
THEY are the ones behind this nonsense of near beer sold everywhere, but wine being hard to buy anywhere in Kansas.
In my new biz, I can get a near beer license, from the city, for about $100/year. Now keep in mind, we are a restaurant that serves drinks, NOT a bar that sells food. We dont even HAVE a bar, we just wanna sell WINE with our food. But we cant sell 12% wine on a $100 near beer licence. Oh no. Never. We have to buy it from members of, you guessed it….Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association!
In order to serve WINE with the food, I need a $1000 state liquor license, with a $2000 cash bond because I have never sold drinks before. I MUST buy the wine from Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association, members. And, since I have that much invested, I might as well sell OTHER hard liquor, no? So MORE alcohol gets served not less.
In Texas, as in other, saner, states, wine and beer can be sold on the same license and in the same places. Like in grocery stores or convenience stores… or… you got it…. RESTAURANTS.
OF course, in those sane states, the beer is 6%, not near beer 3.2
So to keep 6% beer the sole province of the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members, I have to either serve near beer and no wine, or spend three thousand on a license to serve WINE bought from the lobby members!!!!!!
The next time all you get with a meal is near beer or a wine cooler (big eye roll here) sold at high prices in limited locations, please thank the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association.
Clearly, they pull the legislature’s strings on wine. They have the monopoly on selling wine in kansas, and they aint giving it up. Not even to the wine producers or the grape growers. Nope. Just the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association. It is their way or the highway.
And they use the anti-liquor crowd to do something that encourages the sale of MORE hard liquor, not less. Bait and switch.
Go to the kansas ethics commission website, check out the campaign donations of the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association, check out the votes on wine, and SEE if there is any connection.
hehehe. Who wants to hold the money on THAT bet?
Kansas. The best government lobbyists can buy!!!!!!!!!
ksfg, you really need to forward this one to a few newspapers.Give em’ hell girl!!
Thanks tracy, but I am pretty clear that no one with any power really gives a fat rat’s ass about the reality of small business in Kansas. Tax cuts? How about sane laws?
But, here in ahhhhs, it’s not about sane business regulations. It’s all about the kansas equivalent of the k street project.
(Can I get an “amen” from mr. controversy on that?)
But thanks for the thought Tracy. I’ll give you a free WINE freakin’ COOLER if you are ever in my restaurant. :)
Who knows, to the western kansas palate, sour apple wine coolers go great with the exquisite smoked salmon specials.
big eye roll again
Ah, Ahhhhhhhh……….KANASS!
“But, here in ahhhhs, it’s not about sane business regulations. It’s all about the kansas equivalent of the k street project.”
And did I mention a little company called Creekstone in the context of sane business regulations?
damn, yer old enough to remember that song too?
KFG,I’ll sneak my wine in when I come up to eat at the new restaurant. I’ll really feel like a wino drinking my wine out of the bottle in a brown paper bag at a nice eatery. :)
No need to worry about hiding julie.
It is western ks after all, where if you are big enough to put your money UP on the counter, you are big enough to buy a drink! At least it used to be that way in St. Peter. Or the Silver Star Tavern, where if you brought your own gallon jug, they’d fill it at the drive up window for a dollar.(?)
We’ll be like most dry kansans and have liquor by the wink, not liquor by the drink.
If we arent the most wingnuttia state, we must surely be the most schizophrenic state.
The old battle cry? We’ll vote dry as long as we can stagger to the polls”.
heheheheh
Let your passions go, fill your passions, consume Hiney wine. Hiney is home grown Kansas decadence. Everybody loves a little Hiney each night before getting some zzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s.
Hiney Wine Incsucclent grapes and huge melonsKansas Best!Erika
KFG what you are describing is a difference between 3.2 licence and a full liqour licence. You are also in a county that cannot sell liqour by the drink.
So the $1000 liqour licence is for everybody that serves above 3.2, not just for selling wine.
If you are a distributor in Kansas you can pay bonds up to $15,000. So they are not out of the picture and all free game.
You also forgot to mention that Texas, as free as you think it is, they distributors are a monopoly there. In Kansas you can start your own one up if you had the cash, you can’t do that in Texas.
90% of the Budwiser distribution in Texas is done by one company. So it’s a give and a take on liqour laws.
I remember watching ‘Ask Your Legislator’ last year or maybe 2004. Phil Journey was on and he was asked about hard liquor sales at convenience stores and supermarkets. Naturally, he thought it was a bad idea. In his words, “All of these sales require appropriate government oversight.”
Like a liquor store is somehow better than Wal-Mart at selling the good stuff. Nope, both are very concerned about shoplifters and would face the same penalties for selling to minors. Actually, Wal-Mart would probably be better at not selling to minors given the staff and management around rather than just the single clerk at the register you typically see in a liquor store.
Again, lobbyists make the decisions for these so-called legislators. Just like the Indian Casinos do not want additional competition, neither do the liquor stores. This is what you get when you clamor for more government, sooner or later it intrudes into places you do not want it to go.
Actually Proudman, the Wal-Mart or Supermarket chains will probably not sell hard liqour unless a law is changed that they wanted to get for a long time.
That is the repeal of the Sunday Blue Laws. They were the biggest push along with convienent stores to get beer sold on Sundays. LIqour stores hate it but Wal-Mart would love it.
Only problem is that it’s now up to the local government to pass liqour sales open on Sunday’s and Holidays.
They asked the Mayor if he would open up Sunday sales, he said that nobody (the public) has even ask.
The reason the stores want it, because it takes up shelf space and they want to move product. If an entire isle couldn’t be sold on a particular day, that is dead space to them.
Full liqour in Wal-Mart will only come if they allow them to sell everyday. It will probably eventually come to Kansas. It’s in a lot of states already.
DING DING DING DING DING
williams, I try to like you, so sometimes I wonder if the dumbest of your posts are real or a joke.
Duh. I am saying the same thing. I cant sell wine without a full liquor license. In Texas, I can sell beer and wine on the SAME license.
It isnt about price, it is about being able to sell wine without having to pay extortion money to the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members. Or pay extortion to the kansas alcohol licensing agencies.
Hee hee. Funny to watch joe spin as he tries to defend big business that operates as the leftist monopolies he hates. He doesnt know whether to kiss himself or kick his own ass, hence the entirely STUPID post.
Have you ever looked up liquor distributors in kansas? Do you see the territory monopolies in kansas? Are you such a cheerleader that you cant even admit that Texas liquor laws are not as LEFTIST as Kansas’s. Another spin move, do I love leftists or do I admit Texas is right?
Whatever is joe williams to do?
DING DING DING DING DING
Williams gets another “talking out your ass” bell for not knowing where I am located, or not knowing what the liquor laws are here.
I am allowed to sell liquor by the drink in both my county and my city. Duh again!
Do you even think before you blindly start cheerleading for big business or kansas, even when the facts are not correct? Is it so hard to admit that Texas knows a few things kansas refuses to learn?
Sheesh.
And since republican phill is so hot on uncontrolled gun violence, and he takes lots of campaign money from the NRA types…
and he is so hot on stopping wichita voters from voting on gambling, but he takes lots of money from PRO gambling interests and existing casinos….
and since he is apparantly so hot on restricting liquor sales that he gives the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members a pass on sane laws….
…do ya think he might also take campaign money from the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members?
Check out the kansas ethics commission website for the real truth. Look up phill and see where his donations come from. Then look at the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members, and see where their money goes.
Connect the dots. Even williams should be able to do that without ringing the bell. Heavy on the should.
…and while I am at it….
I am also HOWLING at the thought that an extra five bucks will stop anyone from ordering wine.
Kids? Heheheh. When has an extra five bucks stopped them from anything? Nope, just a way to compensate the liquor industry and the Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association members for encroaching on their little monopoly, their little extortion racket.
AA Coors meets the Sopranos. Only in kansas.
Who knew williams loved monopolies? Isnt that a leftist thing? Williams supports the leftist, anti-competition industry.
Heheheh. Who knew?
When I moved here from Texas two years ago, I was shocked at the higher wine prices here in Kansas. I do know from having grown up in Central Texas towns that those small towns and cities, don’t operate in a free market and, of course, the consumer is the one to suffer.
I just refuse to pay the Kansas premium on wine, which seems to run at $2 to $3 per bottle over Texas prices. I used to just stock up when I went to Texas before I finally decided to make the stuff in my basement. Maybe the distributors will now want the state legislators to crack down on the home brewers like myself.
Does that bell have any cracks in it yet? It seems to be getting a hell of a workout lately.
As soon as it’s done cracking we’ll change it to a buzzer.Any particular brand you want?
How about the cosmic raspberry? Even better, the AFLAC Duck- that’s high quality stuff.
Cool! That’s one way to clean up the language ocassionally.Instead of posting: BULLSHIT!, we could just post AAFLAAAC!!If nobody gets it, that’s alright.
Maybe we could set a precedent and have him quack backwards, I wonder how that would sound?
CAAAFLAA!!!!!!!
I think I may have said that late one night after too much beer.
I think I probably said it over the porcelain… after too much beer… and mexican food.
Except in Texas, we just call it food!
“Never again will those evil waters touch my lips”, maybe?
No Sir! Mr. Rooster Cogburn.
I won’t put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains!!
Heheh. So when we start selling near beer in the restaurant, will that make me a pusher not a user?
hehehe
I learned through a study and it told that a large number of youngsters would go for wine as a 1st preference amidst beverages in the next 25 years.
They say, it is unethical to drink while you are under eighteen but then again, what if one doesn’t loose control and remains calm even if he/she has drunk?