Amazon seems to offer everything these days. Most recently, thanks to Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods this year, it seemed like it was going to dominate wine sales as well. It turns out it’s not meant to be. Amazon recently announced it’ll stop selling wine at the end of 2017.
Before Whole Foods, Amazon had already seemingly taken a significant portion the wine retail market. Amazon Wine, a wine-shopping feature offered by Amazon, made it seem as though the days of the local wine shop, or even the larger wine retailer were limited. The ability for consumers to browse a vast selection of wine online wasn’t revolutionary, but Amazon’s reach and breadth made Amazon Wine the next hottest arm of the company.
After the end of the 2017, Amazon will only sell wine through its grocery arm Amazon Fresh, Prime Now, and, of course, the recently acquired Whole Foods.
Amazon debuted Amazon Wine in 2012, and not only did the company have a large selection, the site was simple and easy to navigate. According to Shanken News Daily, there is speculation that Amazon may be shutting down Amazon Wine for having potentially violated tied-house laws, which prevent alcohol suppliers from exercising complete control over alcohol retailers. Amazon was potentially functioning as both supplier and a retailer, and has an ownership interest in Whole Foods, which has a retail wine license.
Amazon Wine will continue to operate until the end of the year. Regardless, there are a host of other online wine retailers out there such as Wine.com. It also doesn’t hurt to go to your local wine shop to peruse the selection by hand. You may find something that’s not advertised online.
