Botched IT Upgrade Ended Liquor Sales for the Entire State of Mississippi (msn.com)
- Reference: 0181645204
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/12/1728224/botched-it-upgrade-ended-liquor-sales-for-the-entire-state-of-mississippi
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mississippi-is-running-out-of-liquor-and-it-s-the-state-s-fault/ar-AA20HpyI
But then Mississippi's warehouse-managing contractor implemented a new computer system that wasn't compatible with the state's delivery system (like they'd promised it would be back in 2023). And then things got even worse... "The problem, business owners allege, is that the company tore out the conveyor belts but didn't hire humans to replace them."
In February a state Revenue Department commissioner told lawmakers the state was hiring temporary replacement workers, but in the five weeks through March 29th they'd only managed to reduce "pending" orders by 21.7%, from 218,851 down to 171,190, according to stats [2]from Mississippi Today . At least four Mississippi businesses are now [3]suing the warehouse operator "claiming breach of contract and harm to their business."
So what's it like in a state suddenly running dry? [4]The Washington Post reports :
> Willie the one-eyed skeleton is dressed for Cinco de Mayo, but the liquor store where Willie sits ran out of Jose Cuervo months ago. Arrow Wine and Spirits is also out of Tito's and Burnett's vodka, Franzia boxed wine, Jack Daniels, and every kind of premixed margarita... Restaurants in Jackson had no wine on Valentine's Day, and bars on the Gulf Coast ran dry before Mardi Gras. At least five liquor shops have closed, and if cheap pints don't hit the corner stores soon, many of them will, too...
>
> [A]s both the state and its businesses lose millions in revenue, many say they see no real end to the crisis. Nearly 174,000 cases of alcohol are sitting in a warehouse north of Jackson, but no one seems to know how to get them out the door... Even the shops that have received deliveries say they often get the wrong thing — Jell-O shots, for instance, that should have been small-batch Norwegian gin...
At Willie the one-eyed skeleton's liquor store they'd previously made 300 to 400 sales a day, according to the article, but last week had 34 customers. And Mississippi is one of 17 U.S. states requiring liquor stores to buy their liquor from distribution centers controlled by the state's Department of Revenue...
Mississippi Today points out that while some want the state to finally privatize liquor distribution, "The state collects around $120 million a year in taxes on alcohol." Plus the state has already authorized "borrowing $95 million to construct a new warehouse, set to begin operations in 2027..."
Thanks to Slashdot reader [5]jrnvk for sharing the news.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mississippi-is-running-out-of-liquor-and-it-s-the-state-s-fault/ar-AA20HpyI
[2] https://mississippitoday.org/2026/04/07/alcohol-shortage-abc-warehouse/
[3] https://mississippitoday.org/2026/03/25/businesses-sue-abc-alcohol-lawsuits/
[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mississippi-is-running-out-of-liquor-and-it-s-the-state-s-fault/ar-AA20HpyI
[5] https://www.slashdot.org/~jrnvk
Old religious nonsense (Score:2, Insightful)
That's really what these states with liquor monopolies are.
Re:Old religious nonsense (Score:4, Interesting)
Tell me about it. I live in PA and the laws are ridiculous. The state finally relaxed the laws enough that convenience and grocery stores can sell beer and wine. In order for this to happen the store must also serve prepared food and having a seating area. So most places just add a few cheap cafe tables that nobody ever sits at. The stores are also restricted on times they can sell and quantity. In fact it wasn't until the early 2000s that PA allowed alcohol sales on Sunday. So you couldn't even get a bottle of wine for a cooking a Sunday roast.
The state also forbids anyone from shipping in hard liquor from other states. You can only buy from a list curated by the state. I saw an interesting brand of Slivovitz that looked good and filled out their request form to see if they could add it. They replied back with this statement.
Unfortunately, this product is a License only product. Meaning that only those with a Liquor License can purchase this product. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Uh what? Isn't that you?
Some sites will ship to PA until they get caught so I'll probably take the chance and order it.
Re: (Score:2)
in theory I agree that blue laws are pretty anti-American (in the freedom sense), and they're pretty annoying if you want to drink or need alcohol for a social function or something.
otoh... i think the world would likely be better off without alcoholic beverages. It ends up causing (or enabling, if you will) a bunch of violence and bad decisions.
years ago I read about this guy's (David Nutt) efforts to come up with a less harmful modern drug alternative
looks like they're still at it [1]https://www.supplysid [supplysidefbj.com]
[1] https://www.supplysidefbj.com/beverage-development/emerging-ingredient-aims-to-bring-the-functional-effects-of-alcohol-to-nonalcoholic-beverages
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, unless you're a raging alcoholic you can probably plan around a no liquor sales on sunday law to go buy your bottle of wine on Sat for Sunday's roast. If you're not there enough to be able to plan that, perhaps you need a day to lay off the bottle.
Re: (Score:2)
but you could say that for the large majority of things anyone buys. idk what the status is now but Germany used to basically shut down Saturday afternoon and Sunday , including grocery stores. Germans were ok with it but other people from other places thought it awful.
so it's like... the argument whether a Sabbath type break from connected and work is good for society and should thus be imposed is separate from the question of alcohol should get special extra restrictions.
well it's a separate issue for
One contractor (Score:1)
Ah yes one of them good ole' boys . Wonder whose brother in law that is?
Re:Seems to me maybe government isn't the answer t (Score:4, Insightful)
You're expecting smart decisions from someone in Mississippi?
Re: (Score:2)
Hey that's why Mississippi votes so heavily red, they just have to to keep that that dastardly overbearing government out of peoples personal business!
Re: (Score:3)
It's not the state's liquor. It's the peoples liquor.
Re: (Score:2)
Not until the people pay for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Really? Was it the state's Tea before the people paid for it?
Re: (Score:2)
It's not the people's liquor it's the liquor of the guy that owns the contracts to make it.
You can try to make your own liquor. If you're lucky and successful the big company will eventually buy you out and you can retire. If you're not you'll either lose your shirt like the other 80% of businesses to go under or you'll get run out of business by the big company then under cuts you or freezes you out of distribution.
The world isn't fair and it's not because of "the state". You could do away with the
GOP hates capitalism (Score:1)
The Republican President is a Mercantilist (Balance of Trade, High Tariffs)
Who called in Elon Musk, a Plutocrat, to destroy our regulatory systems.
While the red states love to engage in Communism (government control of businesses - like one warehouse for all the states liquor) for the benefit of the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Capitalism is about the free market - where people get a free choice. If they do not have a free choice, it is not capitalism. When the choice is buy X or die (medicine for
Re: (Score:2)
> what you meant to say was MS was a blue state up until the mid 1960's and what happened then? HMMMMMM
Political realignment. Basically the Reps and Dems switched places ideologically.
Re: (Score:2)
"what you meant to say was MS was a blue state up until the mid 1960's and what happened then? HMMMMMM"
"Political realignment. Basically the Reps and Dems switched places ideologically."
That is a myth.
[1]https://newstalk1130.iheart.co... [iheart.com]
[2]https://rickchromey.com/the-bi... [rickchromey.com]
[3]https://thehayride.com/2026/02... [thehayride.com]
[4]https://jesterpolitics.com/202... [jesterpolitics.com]
[1] https://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/common-sense-central/content/2018-05-01-the-myth-of-the-republican-democrat-switch/
[2] https://rickchromey.com/the-big-switch-that-wasnt-the-dixiecrats-race-and-1964/
[3] https://thehayride.com/2026/02/bernard-the-party-switch-between-republicans-and-democrats-is-a-myth-heres-how-democrats-really-captured-the-black-vote/
[4] https://jesterpolitics.com/2025/06/02/exposing-the-democratic-partys-racist-past-and-the-1960s-party-switch-myth/
Re: (Score:2)
It's a myth that it's a myth.
[1]https://www.studentsofhistory.... [studentsofhistory.com]
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[3]https://www.pewresearch.org/po... [pewresearch.org]
[4]https://sites.stat.columbia.ed... [columbia.edu]
I skimmed a couple of your links. They:
a) did not disagree about the realignment, just the cause.
b) were heavy with purple prose, and light on citations.
[1] https://www.studentsofhistory.com/ideologies-flip-Democratic-Republican-parties
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/changing-partisan-coalitions-in-a-politically-divided-nation/
[4] https://sites.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/research/published/reversal2.pdf
Re: (Score:3)
Wrong, check [1]https://www.nga.org/former-gov... [nga.org], they flipped Republican in 1992, and briefly flipped back Democrat for one term in 2000. They've been Republican ever since. The current governor has been serving since 2020 and is Republican. Telling lies is generally not a path to credibility.
Before 1992, Mississippi governors were Democrat but that was the old Democrat remnant of the Jim Crow south. All of them whiny little good ol' boys have flipped Republican since that party centered itself around racism
[1] https://www.nga.org/former-governors/mississippi/
Red red Mississippi [Re:GOP hates capitalism] (Score:2)
>> While the red states love to engage in Communism (government control of businesses - like one warehouse for all the states liquor) for the benefit of the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
> Mississippi was a blue state until early 2026.
??
The last time Mississippi was solidly blue in presidential elections was 1956.
They did slightly go for Carter over Ford in 1976 ("slightly" meaning by about 1% margin) but in the wake of Nixon, and of Ford's pardon of Nixon, the entirety of the confederate south from Texas through Virginia did.
Other than that, Mississippi has been solidly Republican in presidential voting, usually by double digits.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_elections_in_Mississippi
Re: (Score:2)
> Capitalism is about the free market - where companies get a free choice.
There, fixed that for you. Whether the people have a free choice is entirely up to the government imposing fair market laws. Companies usually choose to not have competition. Without government regulation, these companies will become too powerful and start to take over society. There are a lot of versions of capitalism, depending on the rules in which the companies operate.
Re: (Score:2)
Came here to say this. Thanks.
Re: (Score:1)
> Companies usually choose to not have competition.
Companies block competition by paying politicians to pass regulations that keep competitors out of the market.
Standard Oil was losing masses of money because it had to keep buying up all the competition and the competitors would then just start a new company which Standard Oil would then have to buy at an inflated valuation. Today it would just bribe a few politicians to introduce onerous regulations on new oil wells and refineries so no-one could afford
Re: (Score:2)
> Capitalism is about the free market
No, capitalism is about maximizing the accumulation of capital, supposedly for the ability to reinvest that capital in the business. As Adam Smith noted though, any time the accumulation of capital is allowed free reign the result is suppression of competition, and we're seeing the result of four decades of deregulation today.
Or, it's just the neo-prohibitionsts again (Score:2)
It's the State of Mississippi, so it's best to assume the worst intentions at every move.
It's just regular corruption (Score:1)
Mississippi like all the deep South States and honestly all the deep Red States is intensely corrupt. The reason there is a single point of failure here is because it's a good old boys network and somebody's brother-in-law gets the juicy contracts for it.
It's like the old saying, socialism for the rich and dog eat dog capitalism for everybody else.
Re: (Score:1)
And blue states aren't corrupt? How do you explain California's high-speed rail debacle? Billions of dollars spent over a couple of decades and no functional rail service. Are you naive enough to think connected insiders aren't pocketing that cash?
Then there's other blue states like Baltimore and Illinois that are hopelessly corrupt. The idea that corruption is limited to red states or even concentrated in those states is just laughably stupid, even for you.
Re: (Score:2)
Gawd help us if Baltimore becomes a state ....
No Problem (Score:2)
Just revert back to the [1]old process [philo.com].
[1] https://static-us-east-2-fastly-a.www.philo.com/gracenote/assets/p27012204_e_h10_aa.jpg
No reason to not privatize (Score:3)
I am in one of the few jurisdictions in Canada which has (mostly) privatized liquor sales. It has led to far higher selection, better service, and lower prices than those who still refuse to. Hilariously enough, the prime argument of the govt unions who prevent the switch, is that we can’t trust private businesses enough to check ID and no sell to minors. There is no reason for the government to be involved in any step of liquor retail other than defining reasonable regulation. Every story you hear like this is simply taxpayer-parasitic unions have undue influence at some stage of the political equation.
Re: (Score:2)
Washington state privatized liquor sales a number of years ago. Overall it's been a plus in terms of what's available and convenience... but it didn't decrease the price, because the government piled on the taxes. There were two arguments given for this: 1) They were concerned about lost revenue, even though we're basically talking about a blip in the overall state budget; and more importantly 2) they were wringing their hands over possible increased consumption driven by the lower prices.
IT Gets Blamed For Bad Management (Score:2)
Again.
\o/ (Score:1)
So we're to expect an uptick in critical thinking skills in Missippi?
Sadly, not unusual. (Score:2)
The British emergency number had a bad IT upgrade, back in the 80s, which resulted in emergencies never getting displayed, only error messages.
I think it was in the 90s that an aircraft crashed because an airport monitoring computer was so infected by malware that it was unable to alert the crew or ATC that the aircraft had a serious issue and needed to abort the takeoff.
Recently, Oracle updated Birmingham UK's government IT system. It is no longer functional. At all. At a cost of hundreds of millions. The
Re: (Score:2)
> The British emergency number had a bad IT upgrade,
[1]Obligatory IT Crowd [youtu.be].
[1] https://youtu.be/HWc3WY3fuZU?si=sOWIJOFj0wwLFPqE
In Other News (Score:2)
Liquor sales in adjacent border areas of Alabama, SE Louisiana and Tennessee have gone through the roof. Not sure about Arkansas or the other Louisiana areas, there aren't many bridges over the river and they can serve as choke points for border checks.
Let's hear it for interstate commerce!
Not suprising for Mississippi (Score:2)
The polices enacted by Mississippi's state legislature are the result of a race to the bottom.
Key 2025/2026 Rankings and Data:
Overall Ranking: Ranked 48th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for the second consecutive year.
Health Care: Ranked 50th (last) in the nation, with poor outcomes, high infant mortality, and high uninsured rates.
Economy: Ranked 49th, with the lowest GDP per capita, high poverty rates, and
And these are the people... (Score:2)
...some advocate being given control of important stuff, like health care?
People often see a problem and assume government control or regulation is the only answer. I trust regulation by market competition far more than I trust the Keystone Kops running every state house.
Or to put it another way, if Amazon, Target, and Walmart made money distributing booze, and liquor stores had a free choice which one to buy from, I guarantee this would not have happened. And I guarantee they'd have better prices, service,
Single point of failure (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, a single point of failure for the entire state? That's a sobering thought.
Re:Single point of failure (Score:4, Interesting)
This Slashdot summary is a "single point of failure" - it's a hodge-podge of statements lifted from the news story, none of which explain what happened.
Basically - the contractor scheduled a planned two-week shutdown for this past January, during which the contractor was going to upgrade its control systems. They announced this well ahead of time (last fall), and businesses were able to stock up beforehand.
During the downtime, the contractor discovered that the new software was NOT going to work with the state's system after all - so they pivoted to a "pick-and-pallet" system which is slower and requires more human transport within the warehouse (the booze isn't transported via conveyor belt, it requires people to load pallets and bring that to the truck).
What the news story alleges is that the company hasn't hired an adequate number of staff for this new pick-and-pallet system. So, since January, they've only been able to fill a fraction of the total orders across the state.
Re: (Score:2)
This Slashdot summary is a "single point of failure" ..
“MARS is the ABC's software. [1]Ruan installed the Blue Yonder software [blogspot.com] at the warehouse without beta testing. It was discovered after it was too late that Blue Yonder could not communicate with MARS. No communications means no orders are taken. No orders taken means no orders shipped.”
[1] https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2026/03/when-wine-runs-dry-liquor-store-owners.html
Re: (Score:2)
And to add injury to insult, the contractor almost certainly was paid in full for the botched install, and probably being paid a bonus to fix their fuckup.
Re: Single point of failure (Score:2)
If you tell me to install it but you fail your due diligence, illl bill you in full for the work and the fix.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a good way to keep people sober in Mississippi.
It would be fun to correlate this with number of DUI incidents.
Re: (Score:3)
> It would be fun to correlate this with number of DUI incidents.
Be aware of unexpected correlations. Maybe DUI will go up because people now have to drive to another state to get their fix.
Re: Single point of failure (Score:2)
I see what you did there. Took quite a shot at the vendor.