And You Wonder Why I Try to Avoid Shipping Wine to Neighboring States

I've mentioned in the past that restrictive Massachusetts wine shipment laws are annoying to me because they require us to have wine shipped to neighboring states to take advantage of deals from out of state retailers. Invariably, something goes awry with this transaction: Missed shipment, couldn't connect with the driver to sign, 2 delivery attempts have been made, what's the tracking number again, where do I need to go to pick up this stuff? You get the idea. Even if things go smoothly you're imposing on a friend or relative to accept delivery.

It's not that big a deal, but I thought I'd share an E-mail exchange with my father-in-law that describes one of the better ways in which one of these transactions typically goes:

From: Me
To: My Father-in-law

Hi There,
I hope you don't mind, but I ordered some wine online and had it shipped to your place. It should arrive some time the first part of this week- 3 bottles. Here's the tracking info.
I think it will require a signature but I hope the FedEx guy can catch you on a day you're around and this isn't a nuisance for you.
Thanks! Appreciate it.
Love,
Bob

From: My Father-in-law
To: Me

Dear Bob,

Perfect timing.

I'm picking up a new bottle opener today.

Love,

Dad

From: My Father-in-law
To: Me

Dear Bob,

The hooch arrived yesterday.

They were all great!

Too bad we couldn't finish the third bottle, we were drunk and it spilled as I recall.

I guess we should have taken notes.

Love, Dad.

From: Me
To: My Father-in-law

I should have mentioned before- they weren't actually wine. They were poison, which I ordered to test whether someone might intercept the delivery and consume it for their own pleasure. Hope you're feeling okay. ;)
Love,
Bob

Ah, fatherly hazing. Good times.

On a serious note, I see that the dreaded Martha Coakley won the Democratic nomination for Ted Kennedy's US Senate seat. At first I thought this was an awful outcome given her opposition to consumer-friendly changes to Massachusetts wine shipping laws. However, as I think about this just a little more, I see this as an opportunity to get her out of the state Attorney General position so hey maybe things will free up a bit.

Summing this up: Every Massachusetts resident should be in favor of freeing up wine shipping laws because allowing legal shipments of wine would enable the state to derive tax revenue from the shipments thus reducing the need to raise taxes in the state further.

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