Sellers navigate wine, liquor backlog in Mississippi

Mississippi’s Alcohol Distribution Crisis Leaves Retailers, Customers Frustrated

Brandi Carter, owner of Levure Bottle Shop in Jackson, Mississippi, is facing a business owner’s nightmare. Since February, her natural wine inventory has been dwindling due to extensive delays in the state’s alcohol distribution system, causing customer traffic to decline noticeably.

“I’ve just reached acceptance that this is our new normal, and it’s awful,” Carter said Wednesday, expressing a growing sense of helplessness shared by retailers across the state.

Unlike most states where private companies handle alcohol distribution, Mississippi operates under a state-controlled system. The Mississippi Department of Revenue’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) department serves as the sole distributor of wine and liquor to businesses throughout the state.

The scale of the backlog is substantial. For the week ending April 12, more than 172,000 cases were pending delivery, with businesses waiting an average of 17 days to receive their orders. While these figures represent an improvement from early March, when the backlog peaked at over 220,000 cases and 25-day wait times, they remain significantly higher than January’s metrics of 51,000 pending cases and three-day wait times.

For retailers like Carter, what was once a delivery window of a few days to two weeks has expanded to four or five weeks, severely impacting their ability to serve customers.

The root of the problem traces back to the state’s aging infrastructure. The Mississippi Department of Revenue attributed the delays to issues that emerged in January when the 40-year-old warehouse transitioned from an “obsolete” conveyor belt system to a pallet-based method for moving cases. A new warehouse management system simultaneously experienced technical problems, compounding the delays.

Carter explained the disconnect: “The computer program that they implemented for the warehouse wasn’t working effectively with the ordering side. So the first big chunk was the biggest problem, because things were being marked as shipped, but they weren’t shipped.”

State officials maintain that technical issues have been resolved and the warehouse is now operating at full capacity. The department insists there is no alcohol shortage and expects shipments to return to normal volume “within the coming weeks” as retail ordering stabilizes. A new warehouse, scheduled for completion by year’s end, will reportedly have the capacity to store and ship more than twice as many cases as the current facility.

During the legislative session, Mississippi lawmakers considered temporarily allowing out-of-state distributors to sell and ship alcohol directly to retailers, with a two-year sunset provision. However, the proposal failed to pass before the session concluded.

The prolonged distribution crisis has forced retailers to adapt to severe limitations. Josh Sorrell, owner of Spillway Wine and Spirits in Brandon, has seen his ordering capacity reduced from 600 cases per day to just 100. Approximately 30-40% of items he regularly stocks have become unavailable.

Sorrell believes the solution is straightforward: restore the conveyor belt system. His concerns have prompted him to request that Governor Tate Reeves declare a state of emergency. Looking ahead to the holiday season—typically the most profitable time for liquor retailers—Sorrell worries the limitations will prove catastrophic.

“As it gets busier, we’re gonna crumble,” he predicted. “I mean, it’s going to be really hard at 100 cases a day to stock up for a full October, November, December.”

The impact extends beyond business owners to consumers, who are increasingly forced to visit multiple stores in search of preferred products. Lauren Roberts experienced this frustration firsthand when she visited Sorrell’s store on Thursday looking for Soda Jerk’s orange cream shots for a family gathering.

“We’re having a little get-together this weekend because it’s my daughter’s prom and her boyfriend’s family’s coming,” Roberts explained. After finding the item unavailable at Sorrell’s store and her usual supermarket, she settled for an alternative. “So everybody has their drink of choice, but me.”

The situation highlights the potential vulnerabilities of state-controlled distribution systems when facing technological transitions or infrastructure challenges. As Mississippi retailers and consumers continue to navigate these disruptions, the promised new warehouse represents hope for a more reliable distribution system—though for many businesses, relief cannot come soon enough.