Tag Archives: anti-trust

Winebits 718: Premiumization, anti-trust, postal service wine delivery

pandemic pricing
“It doesn’t matter what it costs — we want it!”

This week’s wine news: Premiumization “is the gift that keeps on giving.” Plus, grocers ask feds to take action and the history of the postal service and booze delivery

• Premiumization strikes again: I wasn’t going to report this, since we’ve had enough depressing wine news over the last several years. But premiumization as “the gift that keeps on giving?” For whom? Certainly not wine drinkers. Yet Richard Siddle, writing in a British restaurant trade magazine, insists it is: “But we are also increasingly willing to pay more for brands that are genuinely different, authentic and make us feel good about buying them.” The rest of the piece is the usual marketing-speak about how consumers won’t pay more money unless they’re convinced the product is worth it and which, with consolidation, has less and less to do with reality. And no, that the story spells premiumization with an s, in the British English style, doesn’t help.

• Supermarket consolidation: Those of us who pay attention to wine consolidation aren’t the only ones who have noticed what’s going on with big companies controlling key parts of the economy. A trade group of independent grocers has accused the largest retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, of “predatory action.” The trade group says the biggest retailers get better pricing, exclusive products, and even better packaging because they have more clout in the market place. The group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate to see if those practices violate federal law.

• Booze and the postal service: Wayne Curtis, writing in The Daily Beast, does a terrific job detailing the history of the U.S. Postal Service and alcohol as there’s a chance the agency might be allowed to deliver wine. “Given the long-standing prohibition against shipping liquor, it may come as a surprise to learn that ordering liquor by mail was once commonplace.” It’s the kind of story I wish I had written, and includes an ironic section about how it was once legal for out-of-state retailers to sell into another state.

Winebits 712: Parsing the Gallup drinking survey

men drinking
“Wine? Why would we waste our time drinking that?”

This week’s wine news: Delving into the details of Gallup’s 2021 drinking survey, since there’s more to the study than the fact we’re not falling down drunk

• Where are the young people? The Gallup poll confirmed what we’ve seen elsewhere — younger consumers are turning away from wine. Just 22 percent of those 18 to 34 say wine is their drink of choice, and only 28 percent of those 35 to 54 picked wine over been and spirits. That the second group’s number is so low, given that it’s mostly Gen X, speaks to the size of wine’s generation gap.

• Where are the men? This bit was stunning — only 15 percent of men said wine was their preferred beverage. In fact, more men preferred beer (54 percent) and spirits (28 percent). The 15 percent flies in the face of most of wine’s marketing, elitism, and $100 labels. There’s always been a sense women bought more wine, but that men were more discriminating wine buyers, spent more money, and were better worth pursuing. So good luck reaching that 15 percent.

• Thank you, premiumization: The Wine Curmudgeon has ranted long and often about the evils of premiumization, and here’s one more statistic that bears that out. In 2005, Gallup reported that 39 percent of us preferred wine to beer, about the only time in the past 30 years wine has been more popular. Fast forward to 2021, after more than a decade of premiumization, and beer is back on top at 39 percent, and wine is barely holding off spirits, 31-27.

Photo: Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

Winebits 711: Anti-trust, Champagne crisis, wine investments

Champagne
“If there isn’t enough Champagne, does that mean we have to drink domestic?”

This week’s wine news: Biden Administration is looking at the alcohol business, plus rich people facing Champagne crisis and wine as the next great investment

• Wine and anti-trust: Consolidation has made the wine business top heavy in production and wholesaling, with a handful of companies controlling a majority of the business. The Biden Administration, as part of its new anti-trust initiative, is going to look at a couple of proposed mergers on the delivery side. The Federal Trade Commission says it will investigate Uber’s proposed acquisition of booze delivery service Drizly, as well as Uber’s “partnership” with grocery delivery service Gopuff (which also owns the BevMo retail liquor chain). Says one news report: “The FTC is concerned that the deal ‘could hamper competition in online sale and delivery of alcohol and convenience-store items.’ ”

• The rich are different: The Wine Curmudgeon never passes up an opportunity to quote F. Scott Fitzgerald. So be aware that there is a Champagne crisis in New York’s the Hamptons, where really rich people (“They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are. …”) are having difficulty getting enough Champagne. Something about a pandemic, apparently, reports the New York Post. “The shortage is so bad that one … billionaire customer plans to fly 15 cases of premium Champagne on his private plane from France for his wife’s annual Hamptons birthday party.” How can the republic ever survive?

• If you’re tired of crypto: Wine could be your next great investment, writes Kevin Vandenboss on the Benzinga website. “One alternative investment with little correlation to the stock market and strong historical returns has been fine wine. Investors with connections to the top wineries around the world and access to the exclusive wine marketplaces have realized extraordinary long-term gains on the bottles that wine enthusiasts are eager to get their hands on.” Golly! Does that mean I can make enough money to fly in 15 cases of Champagne?