Selling wine through the wine shops and supermarkets will never become passé but the American state like Pennsylvania with some of the very orthodox liquor laws in the US, has recently introduced the country's first wine kiosks, making it a possible source of marketing under government control.
The vending machines have been installed on an experimental basis inside two grocery stores in Harrisburg and if the experiment is successful, the state Liquor Control Board plans to place the high-tech alcohol automats in about 100 other stores.
Customers using the machine at a popular supermarket Giant seem to be happy if it becomes permanent as "this is just convenient one-stop shopping," said a customer from the area, according to a report by AP.
The concept may seem paradoxical within the complicated liquor laws of the State where individuals may buy wine and liquor for home consumption only in state-owned stores like in Delhi till a couple of months ago. Private beer distributors sell cases and kegs only while the Licensed corner stores, delis, bars and restaurants can sell beer to go, but only up to two six-packs per customer. Selling wine from the supermarket shelves is still not allowed. The State Liquor Board has tried to become more consumer-friendly in recent years and has opened 19 full-service state stores in supermarkets.
The board feels that the kiosks will be another step toward modernization and will add ‘another level of convenience in today's busy society’. As might be expected the wholesales have raised strong objection as they doubt if the machines will stop illegal sale to underage people although the machine has a system of checking the age.
Kiosks are bout the size of four large refrigerators and are provided free in exchange for the permission to sell ads on the attached flat-screen monitors. An ATM-type device is installed at one end. The customer chooses the wine on a touch-screen display, swipes an ID card, blows into an alcohol sensor and looks into the surveillance camera. A government employee at a remote location approves the sale after verifying that the buyer isn't drunk and matches the photo ID. The whole process reportedly takes only 20 seconds.
As may be expected, the sales are not targeted at wine connoisseurs, but they're not the targeted audience but an average consumer who wants a nice bottle of wine with their dinner the same evening is expected to benefit from the technological advance.
Japan and Europe have beer vending machines and perhaps scattered wine vending machines already but the concept is new in the US and it may be a few decades away in India yet. But with the technology advancing rapidly and India catching on to the applications even in retail fast, it may not be a utopian dream for very long.
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