Reminder: Selling Highly Allocated Items Fairly

Through customers’ complaints regarding the “unavailability” of allocated bourbon, and an inventory audit of Agency retail sales transactions of allocated bourbon, we have identified improper retail case sales to individual customers. By "case" sales, we mean multiple bottles in a case in one retail transaction.  In some instances, multiple case sales to individual customers. This is alarming as we have sent many communications to Agencies regarding selling "one bottle per customer" as a best practice. As a result, some Agencies face termination and others severe sanctions.

This communication serves as your reminder that this practice is forbidden and is not in line with OHLQ's main objective of selling highly allocated products fairly. Allowing more customers to enjoy limited-production spirits (highly allocated) by limiting sales to one per customer is now the mandated best practice.

OHLQ will continue to monitor sales and transactional data to make sure that Agencies are meeting our one-bottle-per-customer best practice. Agents that fail to follow this best practice while selling highly allocated items will result in a compliance review that will lead to bonus penalties as well as possible termination of an Agency's contract.

Agencies must identify those items that will be limited by reviewing the item’s status and detail code in the Brandmaster Report. Items with a status code of 10 or 70, and a detail code of Allocated (ALLOC), Barrel/OHLQ Exclusive (BARREL), or Managed Distribution (DISTRO), will now be limited to one bottle per customer. Items with any other status/detail code combination should not be limited.

OHLQ will be reviewing the read rates of this communication to ensure Agency compliance. Failure to read emails from OHLQ could also lead to bonus penalties as well as possible termination of an Agency's contract.

Contact the Liquor Enterprise Service Center (LESC) at 877-812-0013 or OhioLiquorInfo@com.ohio.gov with any questions.