does anyone know how laws like this came about? It is from the end of Prohibition, or just political cronyism? I'm irked that I can't buy wines online because I live in CT. Doesn't quite make sense to me.
They regulate the price of beer and booze as well.
Might it be possible to get around this by the vintners charging some sort of "service fee", and lowering the bottle price to a dime, so that the minimum markup is calculated on the dime, rather than the net per bottle wholesale cost? Maybe they could call it a club, with the membership dues fixed and the bottle price real low. The Costco of wine.
Here in Rhode Island it certainly is a cesspool. Spirit retailers are only allowed to own one store, so the cartel has Mr. owning one, Mrs. owning another, Son has another, and Daughter another, etc., so about three or four well connected families own the state spirit retailing.
Then at the distributor level, only one distributor for each brand is allowed to distribute statewide. So, we have three distributors, but surprisingly they all share the same address, billing system, and family ownership.
Then, retailers have not been allowed to advertise, so there's no vehicle to compare prices amongst the differing family cartels.
Our sports club, since we have a dram license, is required to buy from the distributor, but the distributor price is higher than buying from the retailer, as the retail cartels have "buying power" and influence with the distributor, thus getting "quantity" considerations.
But then again, everything about Rhode Island is corrupt, and the RAT politicians control everything, in concert with the Italian underworld.
My wife and I travel to a neighboring state approximately twice a year to purchase wine. I drink at least a bottle a week, so our savings are significant.