If you live in Mississippi and want a bottle of your favorite whiskey, vodka or wine, it could be hard to find.
Since January, when the state liquor agency got rid of outdated conveyor belts at its warehouse north of Jackson, it has been struggling to make timely deliveries to restaurants, bars and liquor stores across Mississippi.
Orders have been taking up to three weeks to arrive, and many business owners have complained of frustrating shortages and bare shelves.
Some have been urging lawmakers to privatize the state-run liquor distribution system.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think people realize how much of a statewide issue this is,鈥� said Anne Marie Smith, the operations manager at Raines Cellars, a wine and spirits store in Flora, Mississippi. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a disaster.鈥�
Smith testified at a legislative hearing on the liquor delivery problems in February and was frustrated that state officials had not fixed them months later.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no accountability for it,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淣one.鈥�
Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control, which runs the state鈥檚 liquor distribution warehouse in Gluckstadt, said the problems began in early January when it paused shipping for several days to conduct a scheduled count of its inventory.
During that time, the agency said, it replaced the warehouse鈥檚 aging conveyor belt system with a new system that packed orders directly onto pallets and required new warehouse management software.
鈥淲hen shipping resumed, several technical issues were encountered even though the system had been tested,鈥� the agency said in a statement. 鈥淭his resulted in delivery delays of approximately three weeks.鈥�
An ice storm in late January closed roads in northern Mississippi, which added to shipping delays in that region, the agency said.
The technical issues have been fixed, and the warehouse is operating at full capacity, shipping seven days a week with additional staff members working extended hours, the agency said.
But over the past six weeks, retail orders have increased by more than 30%, making it hard to reduce the backlog.
This week, there were 172,176 cases of alcohol awaiting delivery, with an average delivery time of just over 17 days, state data showed. It is a far cry from early January, when deliveries were being made in about three days.
Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control said it expected shipments to return to normal 鈥渨ithin the coming weeks鈥� and that it would complete construction of a larger, state-of-the-art warehouse by the end of the year.
This article originally appeared in .
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