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

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.