Local liquor store owners, the state’s hospitality industry, and restaurants are bearing the brunt of a major blow delivered by a massive backlog spurred by the Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control’s warehouse in the Jackson suburb of Gluckstadt experiencing a conveyor belt software failure.
“We’ve got a total mess, especially when we’ve got a warehouse full of a product we can’t get to the package store owners,” Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, said on Mornings with Richard Cross.
In Mississippi, all distilled spirits sold by retailers, restaurants, and entertainment venues must be processed through the Gluckstadt warehouse, which is managed by the state’s Department of Revenue. The software malfunction, along with the building of a new warehouse, has caused retailers to not receive shipments of alcohol that they ordered over the past month.
Last week, members of the Mississippi House of Representatives’ state affairs committee held a hearing, allowing Department of Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham to weigh in on the shipping delays. Graham noted that the contractor tasked with implementing a new conveyor belt system is no longer providing those services, forcing warehouse employees to revert to a less efficient loading method.
In addition, new staffers have been brought in, and crews are working around the clock to satisfy a lengthy list of orders. Officials are hopeful that, with more hands on deck, the backlog can at least be halved within the next month. Meanwhile, businesses are still struggling to meet the demands of customers as their shelves grow emptier by the day.
“The problem that we have is not that we have an antiquated conveyor belt system. We don’t have a conveyor belt system right now. It was completely taken out,” Horan said. “I understand that they were having problems with it, but the contractors involved with it that were having to contract with [the Department of Revenue] were either not prepared or did not care about the fact that they did not have a plan in place eight months prior to the time that it’s supposed to be transitioning to a new warehouse.”
Mississippi’s legislature allocated $95 million to construct the new facility, money Horan and other lawmakers are concerned might not be a worthwhile investment amid the current catastrophe, along with a perceived lack of leadership. The primary worry is that when transitioning into the new facility, which is estimated to take place around eight months from now, existing problems will persist with no real solution in sight.
“The answers that Commissioner Graham gave are just not acceptable, that we’re going to be playing with this for the next two months. There has to be a solution that can be more immediate,” Horan said. “We’ve dedicated a tremendous amount of money to make sure that this system works and that we transition into the new warehouse.”
Some temporary solutions that have been brought up such as allowing businesses to come pick up their orders and establishing a “will-call” system. However, they were promptly shot down, with Graham saying the warehouse lacks the capacity to facilitate plans like those. Another option that has been debated by lawmakers in the past is privatizing the system. That idea has been met with resistance over fears that the state would lose a major revenue source of more than $100 million annually.