Hi Will – just a note to let you know that I support the bill, filed by Rep. John Binienda, of Worcester, that would exempt small brewers from the laws protecting wholesalers in MA.
The law was written at a time when there were only two or three brewers in the market. Since that time, the explosion of micro breweries has significantly changed the landscape. Whereas before, the goal of the law was to protect small, local, distributors, the effect in today’s economy is to threaten small, local brewers.
You may have seen the article in this week’s Belmont paper in which the owners of the Beer Cellar in Belmont also talk about how the law hurts them as retailers.
On a personal note, I’ve seen several excellent products effectively banned from our shelves in Massachusetts (for instance, Long Trail ale), for months or years at a time as brewers, effectively, pull out of the state.
The current law is anti-competition, and anti-marketplace and is another example of government-gone-wrong. Government should stick with the mission of safety, infrastructure and long-range economics and not seek to micro-manage to create non-competitive environments.
link to story:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/small_massachusetts_breweries.html
Wow, I just read the article, and I agree completely. There’s got to be some huge “public purpose” served by such regulation, and I don’t see it. And the talk of “only 10 distributors, down from 50” sounds like crocodile tears to me — to me, that sounds like exactly the effect you would expect to see from a regulation like this. How would a new distributor ever get started?
Yup. I’ve been supportive of these changes for a long time. The wholesalers are way too powerful.
I’m actually a cosponsor of Alice Peisch’s bill.
Clearly I owe you a beer 🙂