UMTravels

Up a littler earlier than usual as I’ve got a class at 11am on the ramifications of Washington State getting out of the spirits and distribution business. This all has to do with Initiative 1183 which the voters passed last November. The seminar was hosted by one of our distributors who are adding spirits to their catalog. Our shop is too small as you will need at least 10,000 square feet to sell spirits.

So, here is the best guess on what’s going to change on June 1^st:

• Nothing changes in the beer world. No discounts, no central warehouse.

For wine, a couple of changes:

• Discounts allowed, but must be offered to everyone
• If you have more than one location, you can now have an off-site warehouse
• Possible broken case fees from distributors (currently those fees are not allowed)
• Still Cash on Delivery, no 30 day terms

The real changes are in the spirits end:

• Basically, liquor prices are going up
• Two new “royalties” (think the mining business) of 10% charged by the Distributor and 17% charged by the retailer… on top of the sales tax
• Big firms (Costco, Safeway) can save the Distributor Royalty by purchasing direct from US distillers (think cheaper Bourbon), but not from foreign distillers (no cheap Grey Goose)
• And the odd thing about the Retailer Royalty (17%) is that it won’t show up on the shelf price, but will be added at the cash register. Talk about sticker shock. $38.44 on the shelf, and at the register with all the different royalties and sales tax: $47.39

Washington State already has the highest liquor taxes in the US, now add 27%.

In other news, late afternoon saw the start of printing the directory for the Faerie Gathering next week. 180 copies, 7 interior 8.5×14 pages, 90 second per duplexed page = days of printing.

Timmy and Anne came over for a lovely corned beef dinner. The dish went into the oven at 2pm (sautéed half an onion, deglazed the pan with some red wine, added half a dozen juniper berries and a bunch of whole green peppercorn) and came out at 7pm. Fresh grated horseradish, sauerkraut marinated in dry vermouth, roasted asparagus and a salad accompanied.

Damn fine meal if I don’t say so myself.

[210.8]