You can only get it if the wine seller has paid his extortion to the state--otherwise, you have to buy the wine from a vendor who takes his bit of the "vig."

And like any other state that allows direct shipping, the winery must first obtain a business license from that state and pay the excise taxes to that state. In the case of MA, I believe the license is $300 per year then reduced the following year when renewed. As long as a winery does not ship more than a regulated amount of cases to any one adult per year, it is really easy to ship wine via FedEx.

As an ex-manager of wine production, if it happens, this is good news. USPS is generally cheaper than FedEx and UPS; and, unlike FedEx, they will deliver everywhere. Some of our customers live in outlying areas where FedEx would not go so, if they really wanted the wine, they'd have it shipped to a friend, sometimes as far as a 100 miles away.

don't have that business license and do not have enough MA-based customers to make it worth buying one, obviating the benefit. That was my point, really. If you're some ordinary slob that wants to buy two bottles of not-expensive wine from Little Unimportant Totally Local Winery in East Godknowswhere Outtastate, they're not going to help you out. You have to do it through the packie, and they will take their cut.

I am a strong supporter of the USPS and am glad that this business opportunity is open to them. There need to be fewer barriers to help USPS thrive; personally, I think they ought to allow them to act like banks, where people without access to those pricey mimimum balance checking accounts who live in bank deserts can go and deposit their check, take out a few bucks for walking around, and pay all their utility bills. It would take a paradigm shift but it would change lives in underserved communities. If we want people to save, we need to make it easier to do that.