I am writing today to voice my opposition to the proposal to make it illegal for a wholesaler to charge a retailer for splitting a case of wine.  Although I do not currently charge retailers a split case fee, I have done an analysis on this topic.  There are three areas where it becomes obvious that delivering bottles instead of cases is significantly more costly. First when picking an order for a retailer an employee can grab a case of wine and keep going to the next item on the order rather quickly.  If he is picking bottles, he may need to go back to that same spot two or three times depending on whether he is picking 5 or 10 bottles. Additional time is need if he needs to open a case. Each additional trip to pick the bottles takes additional time.  Second is the area of checking the orders.  Our checkers have to review each order by case and by bottle.  Full case sales are simple since they are marked on the outside of the case.  A open case full of loose bottles requires each bottle to be examined individually for accuracy.  The third area of expense from bottle picking is in the area of breakage.  Loose bottles will always have an easier chance of getting broken then full cases.  Bottles have different heights and widths, making impossible to stack other cases on top.  A quick shift in a truck or on a hand cart can easily topple those cases to the floor.

For all of these reasons I am opposed to any proposal making it illegal to add a split case charge.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Jay Colston

Virginia Imports