BlockQuarry Corp (BLQC)

[Carini]

I've actually been looking into this a bit, and, suffice to say, it's all a bit murky.

More specifically, the state laws governing the direct shipment of alcohol to consumers who order online appear to be a hodgepodge of inconsistent and hard-to-interpret statutes, to the extent that any laws govern the matter at all.

I found this, which includes a handy chart, but I'll admit I was more confused after reading it than I was before. The last bit is interesting though...

Out of the 54 states, territories and commonwealths, three states—Alabama, Oklahoma and Utah—specifically prohibit the direct shipment of alcoholic beverages to consumers. Mississippi, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not have statutes that specify that direct shipments are allowed.

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have had statutes ruled unconstitutional by state courts in those states.
Delaware have statutory provisions that require orders to be processed and shipped through licensed wholesalers. Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina have statutory provisions that allow wine to be shipped into the state when purchased by the customer on-site at the winery. Rhode Island allows intoxicating beverages to be shipped when purchased on-site.

Five states—Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Nebraska and New Hampshire—and the District of Columbia authorize the direct shipment of all spirits as specified. Eight states allow the direct shipment of beer and wine as specified: Delaware, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Virginia. The remaining states only allow direct wine shipments.

www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/direct-shipment-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

My reading of all this is that any company that wants to base its business model on the interstate shipping of hard likker direct to consumers needs to be prepared to navigate a complicated web of unclear, often-conflicting and sometimes absent laws and regulations that are particular to each state and, in many states, might actually prohibit that shipping of hard alcohol altogether. (Recall the poster who was here for awhile a few weeks ago and then ordered some bottles from the much-ballyhooed website, and then posted about how Passion Spirits had called or emailed him/her to say that "as of today" they could not ship to Texas (or was it New York? I don't recall but it was a big state nonetheless. The buyer even tweeted about it at some point, but, alas, I did not see where ISBG responded to the inquiry). Fortunately, ISBG has a top-notch logistics firm handling all that for them, and we all know they are a stickler for details. But anyways...

Reading through the lines of Passion Spirit's various marketing blurbs, it seems like the way they get around the aforementioned state laws is to not ship any product directly to consumers themselves. Instead, as best I can tell, they take orders (and credit card numbers and money), and then "coordinate" the shipment of the actual product from the producer (ISBG? FCD? TEQUILA BESADO HOUSTON TEXAS?) to a network of local distributors in each state (i.e., not direct to the consumer), and then those distributors and/or retailers are responsible for delivering the product to the consumer him/herself. Actually, after re-reading the below, it looks like what they do is to just take orders that they get and forward them to a "local retailer" (as in, a retailer in the buyer's geographic location) who has "previously purchased [the] product from local distributors."

Are you confused? Don't worry, so am I. But let's proceed.

Passion Spirits' page offers some clues:

CONVERT LIKES INTO CUSTOMERS

By outsourcing the management of your Online Store you can focus in building brand awareness for your product and driving potential consumers to your online platforms while we take them through a smooth and effective purchasing experience, exclusive to your brand.

HOW DOES IT WORK

We provide you with a unique URL address linked to the “Store” section of your online platforms. By clicking on it the user is redirected to your customized Online Store.

Once the customer places an order we redirect it to partner local retailers that have previously purchased your product from local distributors, therefore complying with industry laws.

https://www.passionspirits.com/e-commerce/

Okay, so... basically, what Passion Spirits seems to offer is that they will set up a web page for your product (which you could do yourself, of course, via squarespace or wix.com or any other user-friendly web-design site that would let you cut out the middleman....), and then when/if you get orders, they will forward those orders to retailers local to the buyer (for a fee, of course), who will then fill those orders (for a fee, of course) with the product that the producer (ISBG?) has itself already shipped to those retailers in each state. If the local retailer has no product, then, how can orders get filled?

And this, I am guessing, is the "logistics" problem that we are currently seeing with the besadotequila.com orders. Namely, people from various states have ordered product, and Passion Spirit's job is simply to forward those orders to ISBG, who is then responsible for complying with all applicable state regulatory laws and filling those orders by getting product to a "local retailer" in the state where the order was placed, so that they can then deliver it to the consumer (i.e., intra-state, thus skirting any inter-state liquor shipping laws). Passion Spirits, meanwhile, is left to assure buyers that they expect those retailers to get product "next week," which in turn depends on ISBG/FCD getting that product packaged and prepped for shipment, and then actually delivered to who-knows-how-many local liquor retail shops in various states throughout these great United States of America.

To be honest, all of this seems to me like a super-complicated logistical nightmare that would require an entire department to keep track of and execute effectively (good thing the supposed "CEO" Terry Williams was a former employee of UPS -- i.e the I Heart Logistics company, amiright?).

But, as far as I can tell, we don't have that at ISBG. Rather, the company responsible for navigating this complicated web of federal and state regulations appears to consist of just one guy who, let's be honest, is not the brightest bulb in the stack based on his track record over the last half-decade or so running companies in the OTC. Long on promises and forward-looking statements, very very short on actual results.

And that's all I have to say about that...