U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman placed another stay on her earlier ruling in the closely-watched Coscto decision she handed down in April. Her earlier ruling essentially dismantled Washington State’s three-tier system without regard to the consequences, including many of the protections that ensure a level playing field for businesses of varying sizes. Costco originally brought the suit because, if successful, they would reap enormous benefit, as would other big box retailers. The losers would include small retailers, small brewers and ultimately consumers once the landscape of the state’s alcohol business has been greatly altered after the changes are implemented. Costco and the business press have continued to spin the story by claiming it will lower prices of beer to the consumer, but that’s simply propaganda as I’ve pointed out before and again in response to a thoughtful comment.
The recent stay gives state lawmakers until May 1, 2007 to change Washington’s beer and wine laws through new legislation. Since her initial ruling effectively makes the current laws invalid, an entirely new system to control the relationships between manufacuters, distributors (if any) and retailers must be created. Whether that can be accomplished in under eight months in a way that’s fair to all concerned, including consumers, remains to be seen. But it seems a Herculean task and fated to fail, at least in my opinion. There are just too many competeing interests for almost any legislature to come up with a workable solution. It seems more likely that if any legislation is passed, it will favor the big box stores and big breweries but will at least appear to balance critics’ concerns, while not actually doing so. That’s been the general pattern of legislation in our business-dominated times. Big business contributes to political campaigns and politicians enact legeslation favorable to their benefactors. And as usual, you and I wll be left holding the empty non-returnable bottle.