States have various exceptions to this rule, the most prevalent one being the case of a
brewpub, which is simultaneously a producer and retailer, and has no requirement to sell to a distributor. Some states allow an entity to have a part in two of the tiers, letting small breweries act as their own distributor, for example. Many states permit
wineries to sell bottles of wine on-site to customers. Usually producers will give a distributor exclusive rights to market their product within a geographical area, so that there will not, for example, be two distributors of
Anheuser-Busch products competing against each other. Rules also vary according to what kind of relationships each of the tiers can enter into with the other two tiers. For example, a producer may not be allowed to give promotional items or services to a retailer. Another example is that a beer distributor might be responsible for setting up and maintaining draft lines in a restaurant, or may be legally prohibited from doing so, depending on the state. Also, several states are
alcoholic beverage control states – in any of these jurisdictions, state governments maintain a
monopoly on the distribution tier of the system (at least for distilled beverages). Some (such as
Utah and
Pennsylvania) monopolize the distribution
and retail tiers. Those that maintain monopolies over the distribution system only (such as
Michigan) could still be said to have a three-tier system – in such states, producers sell to the distributor (in these cases, the state as opposed to a private operator) who in turn sells to private retail outlets. The only substantial exception to the three-tier system is the State of Washington. In November 2011, voters in Washington approved Initiative 1183, which dismantled the state-operated retailing system and removed the legal requirement for a three-tier distribution system for alcoholic beverage sales. Under the modified law, the prior state-operated liquor retailing system was eliminated in favor of heavily taxed private retailing. By a substantial margin, Washington has the highest liquor tax rate in the nation. In Washington, retailers may bypass distributors by purchasing directly from producers, may negotiate volume discounts, and may warehouse their inventory themselves. Private retailing began on June 1, 2012. Although private retailing should increase competition in principle, in many cases producers have entered into exclusive marketing agreements with distributors for the market region, to the extent that each brand is often only available from a single distributor in the state (although large retailers such as
Costco have been able to take some advantage of the law and in some cases have introduced their own
house brands). ==Disputes and criticisms==