By CWDWineBloggerA
Can anyone order wine online and have it delivered without any trouble?
Well, not that easy!
The problem is that American consumers can buy computers, clothing, or even toothpaste online, and get free shipping. Those packages show up at the front door every time and no one gives it a second thought. But unfortunately not wine.
Why?
As wineries and retailers selling wines knows firsthand, wine shipping is a complex and bizarre residual system of the 90-year-old legal restrictions which started with the end of Prohibition in 1933. Can you believe that the legal system that regulates alcohol sales in the U.S., and the laws were designed to “prevent” organized crime from taking over the legal liquor business? In other words, long before the Internet and 21st-century technology this old dinosaur of shipping monopolies, tax requirements, myriads of federal, state, county, and municipal laws, and never-ending stacks of paperwork, at the end all accompanied by heavy wine boxes was created and until now happily (for the tax income) maintained to prevent the mafia from selling booze!
Imagine Al Capone, Vito Genovese, Dutch Schultz, Jack “Legs” Diamond, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, John Dillinger, or Bugsy Siegel legally taking over your local liquor store!
So here you go that is where the problems start and end with bureaucracy and it’s far from the freedom of enterprise as we are told. Just food for thought, imagine Al Capone, Vito Genovese, Dutch Schultz, Jack “Legs” Diamond, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, John Dillinger, or Bugsy Siegel legally taking over your local liquor store. Wouldn’t it be better than the massive stack of regulations, paperwork, and other overgrown bureaucracy?
Chicago’s most famous gangster and “Public Enemy Number One”
Al Capone in the center.
Just in case you did not know…
Retailers and wineries must get licenses from each state they ship to, and they may also need federal permits. So a winery in California that ships to 46 states must send copies of its license and permits to each state, complete each state’s paperwork, pay any state licensing fees, and then send copies of all of that to the shipping companies. And that’s before any wine leaves the winery.
Worse, shipping laws are not only different from state to state, but can also be different within a state. So the rules for sending wine to Ohio are different from those for Oregon, and shipping to one city in Florida can be different from shipping to another city. Plus, the laws are different for wineries and retailers. Wineries can ship to 46 states and the District of Columbia, but most retailers can only ship to 15 and the District.
You can imagine there’s a lot of cost involved with all of that and it’s true for wineries, and especially harder for retailers. The costs are driven by the compliance environment.
Wine packages must be labeled as alcohol, so that’s one more piece of the sticker to add to the box. There’s an adult signature requirement. That is what the shipping companies charge wineries and retailers to get someone 21 or older to sign for the wine when it arrives. This is a legal requirement that can cost as much as $8 a shipment. If the driver leaves a note instead of delivering the wine it is because the driver must complete a route in a certain amount of time, and doesn’t have the extra time it takes to wait for someone to come to the door to sign for the package.
Who’s got the monopoly?
In the U.S., aside from a couple of companies on the West Coast, FedEx and UPS handle almost all the wine shipments. For more of your questions, you can visit the part of their website dedicated to alcohol shipping. Other legislation was introduced to allow the U.S. Postal Service to deliver wine, but that’s going to be a long waiting game.
Ironically, wine is an important part of the shipping business; which some are estimating is worth about $500 million a year for FedEx and UPS. Hence, each of these companies is willing to put up with the paperwork, bureaucracy, and regulation, especially since they control the market and pricing, and I bet you, they are also lobbying to remain the only ones.
The real cost of shipping wine – Why the wineries or wine retailers aren’t ripping you off, even though it may look like that.
Here’s a breakdown of all the costs associated with shipping wine within the United States:
The shipping weight of the package
There are two components to the weight of a shipment of wine: Packaging weight and bottle(s) weight. When a winery or wine store selects its packaging, among its considerations are how much the boxes weigh and how much the inserts which protect the bottles weigh. They of course have to consider the protection factor against the actual weight of the materials.
The cost of the shipping materials
Certain types of packaging are more affordable than others. Considerations include Styrofoam inserts, which are sometimes selected to protect the wine against temperature fluctuations vs cardboard-like shippers made from molded fiber. Some wine shippers choose recycled-material molded fiber shippers as they are more environmentally friendly.
These shipping materials come in pre-made sizes and bottle counts, so often wine shippers reward shoppers for buying in quantities that work for maximizing the cost of shipping the wine per bottle. Usually, that’s 3, 6, or 12 bottles per shipment as the 3-, 6-, and 12-bottle shippers use the same inserts and thus offering more flexibility. There are also single-bottle shippers and two-bottle shippers especially great for gift-giving but they cost more to ship.
The cost of shipping heavy wine bottles
While the wine inside a bottle always weighs roughly the same amount, the weight of the bottles can vary significantly. When a winery chooses their wine bottles, one of their considerations is how heavy the bottles are. They may prefer heavy bottles due to the fact it creates a more impressive experience. The unfortunate side effect of that is the higher cost of shipping their heavier bottles. While wineries can consider this and change their decision, by the time an online retailer or a wine shipper gets the wine, the decision is made and they’re stuck with whatever they’ve got. A 750 ml bottle of wine can weigh between 3 and 4 pounds, which is a stunning 25% difference in the weight of each bottle when considering the shipping costs, especially on a 6- or 12-bottle case of wine.
Where the wine is being shipped
How far wine is being shipped also plays a big role in the cost of wine shipping, even if online wine stores and wine shippers don’t charge different rates for customers in different locations. No matter what it’s a part of the shipping cost. Much of the wine from U.S. ships from the west coast, mostly California. Some wine shippers may have warehouses in the Midwest to keep costs roughly equal to each coast and some wine may also be warehoused on the east coast. In case you don’t know there are 8 shipping zones in the U.S. and it takes 5 days to cross the country for your package using ground service. Well, unless there is some issue like a natural disaster or another out-of-the-ordinary thing to prevent your wine from arriving on time.
Business address vs residential
In addition to how far the wine is being shipped, FedEx and UPS (and most other carriers) actually charge more to send packages to residential addresses as opposed to business addresses. What?! Before you get all irritated, there’s a valid business reason behind this surcharge. When they deliver something to a business during business hours, they drop it off quickly, get a signature and they’re done. When they deliver to a residence, a shipment requiring an adult signature can’t be left at the door, they are risking someone is not going to be home. If that’s true they have to take the time to leave a notice and attempt redelivery of the package. As you can imagine, that gets expensive.
What a wine lover purchasing wines online can do to save money?
Purchasing wine online is also a great way to save money. Seriously, let us explain! Shipping can be quite expensive, but online wine retailers like CzechWinesDirect.com always have some sort of discount code for a percentage off wine or discount shipping when you buy more. If you have another trustworthy wine friend, you can split the fee and share. Have patience and follow these simple rules, provided the state, county, or city you’re living in allows you to.
Look for wines on sale
Just like when we shop for anything else online nowadays, we are looking for sales or clearance offers. You'd be surprised what choices you have found some significant markdowns. A lot of wine shops will put wine on sale to make room for new vintages or other inventory, and so does CzechWinesDirect.com. As one of our very happy customers said “I once purchased excellent “Moravian” wine on sale for $35 when it typically retails for $78. It was my first time trying this wine and I fell in love, glad I bought 6 bottles at once! Now, this it’s one of my go-to Moravian wines!”
Shop at a certain time of a year
Make it part of your routine to look for your wine at a different time of the year. Chances are you can find better prices especially if you wait for a holiday or promo sale. We recommend frequently visiting our web for deals or if you want more convenience sign up for our newsletter and we will let you know when you going to get a better deal.
Buy wine in bulk
As with the brick and mortar stores, CzechWinesDirect.com occasionally offers discounts when you buy 6 or more bottles of wine. See when we run promo sales like the one where you get 30% off with your coupon plus an additional 10% off if you buy 6 or more bottles. This is great if you're buying for a party, family, friends, holiday & birthday gifts, etc., or stocking up on your favorite wines. Explore our offers for case discounts and special offers on our winery direct offers which are wines that we source directly from the wineries, so we can offer them to you at lower prices. The other benefit of buying more than one or two bottles is you’re going to save big on the shipping cost, and that is especially now with these crazy all-time-high gas prices way to save! Want to save on shipping? Buy more! We are sure it will not get wasted.
Check out the table below for examples of shipping costs across the whole country per different wine box. It will give you an idea of how much you can save by buying more bottles. You can save nearly $25 in shipping if you buy a whole case instead of one bottle. Note these prices are just examples and are subject to change, especially nowadays with the gas prices going through the roof. If you want to see an accurate shipping price just add items to your cart and check it there, you get the most updated rates.
We hope this article was a bit helpful to you in understanding more about the shipping part of your wine shopping experience here at CzechWinesDirect.com. If you want to learn more about wine shipping or different subjects let us know.
