Wine Sellers' Prediction Of Internet-Enabled Teen Winos Comes Up Empty

Studies

from the who-knew? dept

It’s always fun when industry groups who are clearly trying to protect a business model under threat come up with scare mongering quotes to try to get politicians to block out new competitors with new business models. For years, many states had protectionist laws when it came to online wine sales. Most of these were designed to protect the local wine sellers — but, of course, the public spin was that it was all about “protecting the children.” Last year, of course, the Supreme Court knocked down the most protectionist of these laws. So, now that it’s been a year, if the wine sellers were right, we should be hearing stories of teens ordering wine all the time. Unfortunately for them, a new study shows that teens really don’t seem to care much about ordering wine online. Perhaps the times have changed, but when I was a teen, wine wasn’t exactly the alcoholic beverage of choice among my friends. Plus, you have to take into account that wine deliveries still require signatures, and most teens tend to live at home with parents who might notice an incoming shipment of alcohol. So, you would think this would make those who were screaming about “protecting the children” quiet down — but, you’d be wrong. Instead, they’re still trying to spin this, calling the findings “shocking” and saying that the low number only means it’s about to rise rapidly. “This is new, hard evidence that should really shake up this debate about direct sales.” No, this is actually new, hard evidence that the problem you’ve been screaming about isn’t a problem at all.