A liquor store waits about a week and a half for an order to arrive from the Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse in Gluckstadt.
“The order I received today (Nov. 10) was submitted on Oct. 26,” said Scott Jackson, owner of Colony Wine Market in Madison and research director of the Mississippi Independent Package Stores Association.
“The warehouse is about 11 business days out on shipping. They’ve been saying around that number for a while.”
What that means for customers is they need to plan if they have a specific wine or liquor they want to serve during the holidays.
Jackson advises customers, who have a particular wine or spirits that they want for a holiday event to check with a liquor store several weeks ahead to ensure their choice will be in stock.
“Customers need to reach out two or three weeks in advance of special events,” he said. “We can’t react quickly to folks who come in and say, ‘I need so many bottles of this,’ if it’s not a common item you have a lot of.
“We’ve had this problem long enough that many customers understand it and will ask, ‘Can you pick out something else for me?’”
In Mississippi, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control, part of the Mississippi Department of Revenue, handles wholesale distribution of wine and liquor.
Manpower and delivery issues have plagued and continue to plague the Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse as they have for the last decade. The problems stem from a lack of increased funding by the state Legislature.
District 25 Sen. Walter Michel expects to learn more about the operation of the warehouse during a budget hearing for the Mississippi Department of Revenue on Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. Michel serves as subcommittee chairman of the Appropriations Committee in charge of the budget for the Department of Revenue.
Michel said he plans to ask about delays in getting orders filled, loss of employees to the Amazon warehouse, which offers its employees higher pay, and the state’s plans for improvement.
The delivery issue is expected to be improved by the summer of 2023.
“The state is going to contract with a private company to operate the warehouse,” Jackson said. “They’re supposed to select that contractor around the first of the year and then get them on board and working in the current facility as soon as possible. I’m sure there will be bumps in the road but I’m hoping by summer things will operate more smoothly.”
A private company will have more capital for human resources and equipment for the warehouse and that will ensure it runs more smoothly and stores get their orders quicker, he said.
The warehouse is better stocked than it was during the coronavirus pandemic when many consumers turned to liquor to cope with the uncertainty of it, Jackson said, noting that liquor stores can obtain more merchandise than they once could.
Liquor stores still need to invest in inventory, provided they have the funds to do so and storage space for backstock, to ensure they are stocked as well as they can be without having to wait on orders from the warehouse, he said.
“It costs money to sit on inventory but that’s the only way you can deal with the situation,” Jackson said. “We put about $100,000 more into inventory than we normally would at this time of year to make sure we don’t run out of stock.”
During the last six weeks of the year, sales at liquor stores, like many retailers, will account for about 25 percent of a store’s annual revenue.
Jackson doesn’t expect the 2022 holiday season to be especially robust due to the economy.
“I think everybody has been worried about the recession and typically when you’re in a recession people still buy alcohol, but they don’t’ spend as much,” he said. “We’re not expecting it to be a great holiday season but in our industry it’s never bad.”
Keeping in mind that some consumers may need to opt for a $15 bottle of wine instead of a $25 one, Jackson said he has been adjusting his store’s inventory.
Jackson is optimistic that the operation of the warehouse is going to be improved.
“If we can make it through one more holiday season, I think things will be better going forward,” Jackson said.
