Editor’s note: I’m out of the office this week, so in honor of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits’ “non-prosecution agreement” with the feds, I thought it’d be fun to revisit another column about how the middle-tier colossus shapes the market to its advantage. The column below originally ran on April 12, 2022, when the boozeletter was much, much smaller. I’ve lightly edited it for length and formatting, but otherwise, I think it really held up. Regular programming resumes next week.—Dave.

American alcohol sales are handled by a three-tier system of producers, distributors, and retailers designed to promote competition and block vertical business integrations that would enable dominant firms to amass undue market power and political capital. Each state has a different system, all 50 of which have at least one loophole big enough to drive a box truck through, but that’s the general idea in theory.

In practice, though, it’s not hard to find examples of a Big Booze player throwing its weight around in a manner that suggests the playing field is, ah, not entirely level.