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Only in Massachusetts? Wine store forced to cancel discount promotion because we have liquor price protection
By adamg on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 1:19pm
Urban Grape in Chestnut Hill reports it was forced to cancel a Groupon discount-coupon promotion today:
It came to our attention a few hours ago that the type of promotion Groupon ran this morning in The Urban Grape’s name is prohibited under Massachusetts law. The second we found out (I kid you not, I was standing in a playground in Jamaica Plain), we asked Groupon to pull the deal, and they immediately complied. While I wish Groupon had known about this before they ran the deal, I must say that they are working hard to make this situation right for all of you. For that we are quite thankful.
Via Dale Cruse.
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Comments
I'm guessing it fell under
I'm guessing it fell under the Liquor Club law, which is why BJs liquor store is open to the public.
Same as Happy Hour law?
The Happy Hour laws basically state that you can't sell at a discounted price, even to the public, unless that price is going to be the normal price for at least some fraction of the week(?)/month(?) that you're selling at that price.
In other words, you can't discount your alcohol price for "one day only" or "between 4-6PM weekdays" if someone can't come in the next day at noon and buy it at that same price. It prevents "Happy Hours" and the Groupon is probably functioning like a day-long "happy hour" since the price will return to normal the following day.
Coupons and vouchers don't cut it as work-arounds as I remember how it was written, either.
groupon
when I got my groupon email this AM. I thought what a great deal it would be to stock up on some craft beers, but I knew that it would run afoul of this law. It's the same one that did away with happy hours. The proprietor should have known better, it was not groupon's fault.
Is it the Happy Hour law....
....or the law saying a liquor retailer can't sell a product for less than cost?
Just a guess. Maybe applying the Groupon discount effectively causes the product to be obtained for less than cost, so it would run afoul of that law.
Anybody know for sure??
How is it that this law is
How is it that this law is not considered price fixing, which violates federal law. since no state may pass a law that violates a federal law, therefore it should be illegal.
How could groupon not know...
They did the same promotion a few months ago for the Wine Exchange in Boston ($15 for $30 in wine/beer) and it ended with the same result - money refunded with apologies that they didn't know about the rules.
Just one more way this state
Just one more way this state punishes responsible drinkers, while those who are alcoholics will be drunk regardless.
Either way, places get around happy hour laws by either having them almost everyday, or by having a patron 'win' a party and invite as many people as they know for discounted beers.
Those laws are so dumb.
Stupid throwbacks to an age of Puritanism and overzealous Temperance Movement ideas. Time to move on. "Can't discount liquor"... what a crock.
Candidates for governor?
As governor of a midlevel state, there's very little you can do about the economy. I don't care how much you hate immigrants, I don't expect you can make any fundamental changes about crime and taxes...how about promising to end crap like this, and make this a state that doesn't make us scratch our head at its stupidity so often?
Who said you can't discount liquor?
Settle down, lots of places discount liquor. For whatever reason, they just don't accept Groupon.
hear hear! i've never been so
hear hear!
i've never been so infuriated with this state as the first time I tried to buy wine and beer for a memorial day cookout..... unf***ing believable. And I come from a red state
I thought this is supposed to be one of the most progressive
states? Then why do we have laws that are ages old from the time of puritanism? Are you kidding me? Maybe women should be required to wear veils too.
The Urban Grape
Thanks to everyone for your comments. It's actually still very murky which of the laws we had violated. It appears it was not the discounted liquor law, which we had researched very carefully, but a different statute about promotions.
We posted some information about the refund on our site, which we encourage everyone to read and forward if you know someone who bought the Groupon. www.theurbangrape.com/blog. We are working very hard with Groupon to ask them to please make a substantive refund to their customers.
By the way, I believe it was Buy With Me that ran Boston Wine Exhange's coupon, and they were one of the people kind enough to alert us to the statute this morning.
Not sure what "discounted liquor" law is
But here's the "Happy Hour" law:
Pretty sure a Groupon would break (1e) and probably (2) as well.
Those are all laws for bars
Kaz, those look like laws specifically for on-premise accounts, rather than retail outlets. They all mention the word "drink" which you can't do at a packy. Whaddayathink?
I still think Groupon breaks the law for selling stuff at a loss. Just my 2 cents.
Good point
In the earlier part of the code it talks about sales for on-premise drinking.
The law you are talking about is this one 138-25c(f):
However, what's funny is if you go to the ABCC website to get the mininum consumer price list (CMR 204 2.12). You get this:
Evidently, we're so good at writing laws, we even hide the results from ourselves.
Chapter 138
of the Mass General Laws deals with alcohol. It has a few hundred pages and isn't easy to read. And then you have the CMR regulations which Kaz cited.
I beleive you have keep records of all prices and cannot change then or give discounts for alcohol. That being said, I don't have the time to look through all that stuff to find it either.
the CMR makes some stuff pretty clear...
... for example, you can't sell alcohol at a loss:
i have no idea if the groupon deal was less than cost, but if it was, it's a big no no.
Well here is more from section 15
Every licensee hereunder shall keep conspicuously posted in each room where any alcoholic beverages are sold a price list of such beverages. Sales by such licensees shall be made only in the original manufacturer’s or wholesaler’s and importer’s package and at the prices stated on the current posted price list. All malt beverages containing not more than three and two tenths per cent of alcohol by weight shall be so labelled.
Maybe that's it.
Why didn't the store owner
Why didn't the store owner know about that law? I knew about it, and I don't own a liquor store.
I swear Mass has the most absurd laws i've ever seen
Just like this one about the wine that make no sense whatsover. I mean really how are these laws put into effect? Do we even vote on them? I guess that says something about the idiots running this state.
Well, there was that
Well, there was that referendum to allow more than 3 grocery stores per chain to sell wine. It failed, because of all the police chiefs who said it would increase underage drinking.