ABC customers continue to struggle as the warehouse runs nearly a month behind on filling orders. ABC warehouse manager Ruan Transport chose to remove the conveyor belt system and replace software system at the same in January. The result was a meltdown in deliveries to restaurants, bars, casinos, and package stores across Mississippi.
The owner of Spillway Wine and Spirits vented his spleen last night on social media:
Dear Governor Tate Reeves,It has been almost 2 months since the ABC shut down for an inventory count and apparently a software change-over that made the conveyor belt system obsolete. This has caused a system-wide breakdown. Store owners are struggling to get enough deliveries to keep their shelves filled. Our delivery times have gone from 2-4 days to 3-4 weeks. We are missing cases from these orders frequently. We are getting charged for deliveries that never arrive. Getting a reimbursement for those missing cases is painful and time-consuming. The state drafts our accounts for what is "supposed to be" in the truck. Then it is the delivery company's responsiblity to issue a credit to the store owner for anything broken or missing. The orders have been so messed up when the abc loads the truck that the delivery company doesn't want to issue credits for missing cases. My last delivery was missing 32 cases for a value of $3,000 that took 3.5 weeks to arrive. We are missing 3 other orders that ABC says was delivered and the $600 was drafted from our account, but we have not received them at my store. I am working on getting a credit back from the state, but this is a slow, painful, time-consuming process. It is hard enough to run a retail store with empty shelves, tracking the mistakes that the ABC is making is even more costly to our bottom line. This is terrible.Mr Reeves, please, on behalf of all package stores in the state, we need you to declare a state of emergency in Mississippi. We all watched the house hearing last week regarding this topic. The ABC spoke with great optimism, but we are not convinced. It is the ABC's plan to work without a conveyor belt for the rest of the year until they move into the new facility. This is not sustainable. We need you to declare a state of emergency to open up the state's pocket book to fix this problem. This is a bigger problem than they can fix by just buckling down and working harder. This is our slow time of the year and we can't get stocked. What happens when we get busy for summer or even busier for Christmas! Some stores see triple and quadruple sales numbers during November and December. We have to get stock.The state of Mississippi is the biggest benefactor of wine and liquor sales. The state makes some 27.5% off every bottle sold in the state of MS. If we can't get it, we can't sell it. The state is seeing a huge loss in tax revenue over this break-down. Governor, declare a state of emergency and pay whatever it costs to get this resolved immediately, and regain the taxes that we are losing every week.Declare a state of emergency to save the private businesses that are dependant on your systems to survive.Sincerely,Josh SorrellSpillway Wine and Spirits
Kingfish note: One package store owner told me today ABC only delivered half of their order this week and of course it was several weeks behind. Other owners said shipments are running close to a month behind while the orders are half to nearly full.
The warehouse cut 86,000 cases this week. The warehouse employees will be loading trucks this weekend for the third weekend in a row. ABC expects to deliver 18,000 cases Monday and 100,000 next week.
28 comments:
Fire Chris Graham.
The State needs to allow for privatization of alcohol distribution and get out of this business. What a disaster this has been. Get rid of the alcohol bureaucracy and red tape that negatively affects Mississippians' choices with alcohol.
What happens when they move their operation from this warehouse to the new warehouse this summer? What more could go wrong?
Thank you for your leadership Tate! Can't wait to see what crashes next.
You create a system where the warehouse manager gets to shift all responsibility for the accuracy of the order to the delivery company, which then shifts to the customer to call out errors and request a refund from the state, which has already gotten paid, but requires the customer to request the refund from the delivery company, who then requests the refund from the state.
What could possibly go wrong?
Big Hat Andy visits the operation to check for bottle rustlers and a forklift runs over his hat.
Let’s not pretend anyone involved has clean hands. The liquor stores have long supported their exclusive ability sell liquor instead of it being available in grocery stores and smaller convenience stores like in free states. Every time the push to open up liquor sales and distribution has come along the liquor store lobby has fought to keep the status quo to sustain their monopoly.
There ya go. let's send all the money out of state to Kroger, Walmart, and Costco. Let's do to local businesses what Walmart did to them. Love it.
@KF nothing says that a Mississippi conpany cant start their own low cost online wine and liquor sales model. Isn’t that what every one of your groupies says whenever someone criticizes your editorial and comment moderation? Just go make your own!
Kingfish @2:52,
Why should consumers foot the bill to maintain a monopoly that benefits liquor store owners? If the local liquor stores can’t offer enough value to make it worth it for us to go shop there, rather than at grocery stores or Total Wine, then that’s on them. If they can’t match the prices bc of their lower volume, then they’ve got to offer something else to make it worth our while. This bullshit protectionist attitude deprives our state’s citizens of more options and damages quality of life.
Ditch the state warehouse. Ditch the three tiered model of alcohol sales. Stop treating Mississippi consumers like we’re children that need to be protected, rather than the voters in charge and free people.
Cant blame the liquor stores for being mad. Stupidity lead to this problem, its not getting corrected, missing orders but no problem on taking the money for the missing orders. Incredibly frustrating.
This is what happens when the Baptist rule the state.
I worked for a restaurant many years ago. I can remember getting everything lined up, make the phone call for the order, done. But there was no joking around, call from a quiet place, call was fast, accurate, 100% business. Order would come in perfectly.
Can this contractor run the water system in Jackistan? It's been awhile since they had any outages.
State needs to make ABC take responsibility for issuing fast credits to retailer accounts for missing orders. Audit it later, but at least fix their ABC induced cash flow problem.
I'm glad that I live a few miles from the Louisiana line. I've never had any problems like this in our neighboring state.
An alcohol state of emergency. What a hoot.
There are 17 states that still operate by Alcoholic Beverage Control, allowing the government to maintain a monopoly over the wholesaling or retailing of alcoholic beverages. Interestingly, only 3 of the states are in the Deep South, so you can't blame the Baptists. But, it's an archaic practice that needs to go the way of the Dodo.
Times like these make me think of those who say about recreational drugs, "Let's legalize it, let the government take it over and make money off of it."
Poor management has created this bottleneck.
Drink more beer
Ha! I see what you did there. Well played!
I hear you, 4:06 - Olive Branch is just a stone's throw from Memphis where this problem does not exist.
I'm sure @2:56 doesn't realize it but they are paying you a big compliment KF.
If the Baptists ruled the state as you claim we wouldn't be closer to Sunday sales as we are right now.
They can compete with Rukia's free bottled water enterprise.
Outside of Utah, are we the only state that puts wine and liquor in the same category? Not selling whiskey on Sunday sure, but getting a bottle of wine for an unplanned dinner?
And yes, ABC is trash
How is the problem fixed now?
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