Holy Hell Free Rangers,
The booze industry is crumbling. We’re doing great, thanks to all of you, but major producers are halting production, many smaller and sourced brands are shutting down entirely, and the distribution tier is resorting to raising fees while reducing services, most especially Southern Glazer’s and RNDC and we can’t wait for them to dissolve. Southern is one of only two companies that charge a delivery fee, even when the order is above minimum ($1250) for what used to be free delivery which now costs $7.50 regardless (delivery fee is closer to $30 for orders under $1250). On top of this, they went from delivering 5 days per week at our discretion to assigning us a single day once per week for all deliveries. For those who are bad at math, like me, that’s an 80% reduction in service with no reduction in fees. But this is what comes of corporate consolidation. It’s just an extraction of value from existing customers, when a company has grown too large to just do better and earn new customers.
And as an added bonus, when they screw up an order, we’re just supposed to wait a full week for them to correct it. As such, we still haven’t received items that were supposed to be here two Mondays prior, several of which are bill & hold items which went back into storage (without notice or apology), from which they collect more fees from us. So, Southern Glazer’s thinks it perfectly reasonable to actively make our lives harder and charge us more money for the privilege of continuing to work with them, well over a decade into our (abusive) relationship. This is just basic theft with extra steps. While we were arbitrarily assigned Wednesday as our one available delivery date going forward, there was a Southern truck parked directly in front of shop this last Tuesday apparently to deliver to someone nearby. And I’ve just been told that they did try and deliver our B&H items on a Monday- but with massive fees. This proves that they can still deliver on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but so far refuse to budge on the Wednesdays only thing. If a logistics company can’t figure out how to get cases on a truck for a customer who is exactly where they are going to be anyway, perhaps this company has gotten too big to survive as one entity. They did $26 billion last year and can’t pay a logistics consultant to figure out delivery. Did I mention that these jackasses often deliver two and three days late without notice? And those were now the good ol’ days. This is what comes from unfettered corporate consolidation and zero enforcement of anti-trust laws. This is happening in almost every industry. Late stage capitalism is a bitch. Good luck to us all. Who else needs a drink?
Regardless of the hardships and hassles we find just trying to continue doing business as we have for 13 years, we are here for you and your booze needs. As such, our FREE in-store tasting program plows forth, welcoming to the shop Brooklyn’s own Brooklyn Kura to show off some of their delicious local sake(s) and a brand spankin’ new Shochu. The latter of which is so rare and/or new that I can’t seem to find details on their website. And as Derek bought this one while I was out of the office- inexorably, potentially indefinitely, trapped near the inner circle of fault– I have yet to taste and am also very much looking forward to this one. So, please join us this Thursday, February 12th (5-7pm), for FREE tastes of Brooklyn Kura Sake(s) and Shochu. All Brooklyn Kura bottles are 10% off in-store only on tasting day!
As many of the items vaguely mentioned above have yet to arrive, we have little to display below at the moment, so we’ll just show you all the lovely Standard Wormwood Distillery bottles from last week’s tasting. Thanks to those who came out to meet Sasha and taste with us. Anybody who would like to re-up and/or buy anew, Derek just posted a page with the whole line-up at 10% off all week ONLINE ONLY!
(!) Click here for Standard Wormwood sale page (!)
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
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