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Amazon Does An Abrupt About-Face, Recorks Its Wine Plans

Written by Fred J. Aun
October 28th, 2009
After fostering excitement among winery owners and engaging in about two years of preparation, Amazon has decided to put the cork back in a plan to sell wine over the Internet. The E-Commerce giant is staying tightlipped about the reasons for its sudden attack of cold feet, and many are pointing to the myriad rules, regulations, taxes, fees and laws involved in selling and shipping vino in the U.S.

Amazon planned to have a California company with which it partnered, New Vine Logistics (NVL), handle the complex order-fulfillment hassles and legalities. That didn't quite work out as NVL, citing a "financial crisis," went out of business in July. Although Inertia Beverage Group subsequently purchased NVL, some have argued that NVL's problems played a part in Amazon's retreat from wine. This is not the first time Amazon has tried selling wine and been sidetracked by bad economic conditions. Back in 2000, Amazon bought almost half of WineShopper for $30 million. But the dot-com implosion that summer wound its way to the wine seller and brought stock prices into the cellar, too. WineShopper merged with another crushed grape E-tailer, Wine.com, and the combined company went bankrupt and was sold in 2001

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