Georgia Beer Jobs Bill - Let the Breweries sell their own beer

If you live in Georgia and drink beer, you're already familiar with Georgia's antiquated system of beer sales.  If you don't live here, then you may be surprised to find out that the breweries can't sell beer directly to their customers.  That's right; a company that produces a product cannot sell directly to its consumers.  Instead, Georgia still uses the three-tier system that was set up after prohibition ended: producers can only sell to wholesale distributors, who then sell to retailers.  Only the retailers can sell to the public.

The Georgia Beer Jobs Bill (Senate Bill 63) would allow breweries to sell up to 72 ounces of beer for on-premise consumption, along with up to 144 ounces of beer for off-premise consumption.  Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?  A better idea would to remove the quantity restrictions, but...baby steps.

The wholesalers are throwing their money at the legislators to try to keep the three-tier system in place.  They don't care what the public wants; they just are scared that allowing the public to purchase from the breweries will wreck the three-tier system that has earned so much money for them.  They claim that it will destroy the "good system" that is in Georgia.  (Good for who?  Only for them.)  They completely ignore that wineries have been able to sell directly to consumers in Georgia for years, without the destruction of this "balance" between the three levels.  They don't seem to understand (or just conveniently ignore) that people are still going to buy the vast majority of their beer from stores anyway, because we're just too lazy to pass a dozen stores to get to the brewery when we want a six-pack.  Their arguments also conveniently ignore that allowing breweries to sell directly to consumers in 45 of the 50 states hasn't brought the world to an end.

Georgia claims that it's a state that wants small businesses to thrive.  If that's true, I don't understand why our senators and representatives are not rushing to support this bill.  This will be a great thing for our breweries, with minimal impact on the wholesalers.

Even if we completely ignore the current unfairness of not allowing the breweries to sell directly to the customers, you would think that our legislators would realize that this will bring money to our state.  Beer is part of the tourism industry; it can bring people to our state, or at least get people to stay longer and spend more money here.  Atlanta is less than four hours south of Asheville, NC; it should be obvious how much beer has benefited that region, and what it could do for us.  If there's any doubt, they could just look to the New Belgium and Sierra Nevada breweries being built there.  (As a personal example, we have a group of 10 friends heading to Ft. Collins, CO in July to visit the breweries there.  We're only spending around 3 days on the "beer" portion of our trip, but many of us will be spending an additional week in the state.  So, this is 10 days of hotel rooms, meals and car rental that is being spent in Colorado as a direct result of beer.  You just need to glance at some of my other posts to see how much beer tourism can get someone to visit a community/state. )

While discussing New Belgium and Sierra Nevada's new breweries, I have to mention how breweries wouldn't even consider expanding to Georgia.  When Tampa's Cigar City started looking add a production facility in the Southeast, they did not even consider coming here.  ("We’ve kind of purposefully skipped over Alabama and Georgia because they really don’t ...have the friendliest legislation so we kind of took those off the table right away.” These are potential jobs that won't be coming to our state because everyone knows we're not beer-friendly.

This is one of those rare situations where almost everyone agrees that a bill should be passed.  (Of course, the exception is the wholesalers, and whatever legislators are receiving their contributions.)  Communities are even throwing their support behind the bill, including Kennesaw , Alpharetta  and the Valdosta Tourism Authority.

Meanwhile, editorials throughout the state are also discussing the benefits of the bill, and stating that it should be passed:
  Marietta Daily Journal (courtesy of Northwest Georgia News)
  Savannah Morning News
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  Peach Pundit
  Creative Loafing
 
Yet, I hear no one claiming that this bill shouldn't pass...except for those wholesalers (and their money). 

Unfortunately, I think the money going from the wholesalers to our legislators' pockets is going to derail this bill, no matter how much it would benefit Georgia.  But, if you would like to try to help, I would encourage you to contact your legistlator(s).

•   You can look up your senators and representatives at this site.

•  I would also encourage you to contact Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, as some has reported that he is using his influence to prevent this bill from passing.  (Phone: 404-656-5030 Email: casey.cagle@ltgov.ga.gov)

Here are some other articles discussing the bill, and various reactions to it.
Fortune
Creative Loafing and also here
Online Athens
Erick Erickson Show