Ugh, i just have to post this because it is so unbelievably frustrating.

Don't get me wrong, I love distributors. Certain distributors. Basically any distributor that PAYS.

As you can imagine as the economy gets tough, the small distributors are really getting squeezed. I understand that and can be somewhat sympathetic. But we are also a small company. And when we don't get paid on time, it effects our business as well. 

Said distributor is in, lets say South Dakota, since I don't have one there (even though I am mad, I am not ready to call out the accused). We have a multi-state account...a chain of really great restaurants. And we worked HARD to get that account. They have several wines By The Glass and they have a couple of our higher end wines on the lists. Several of these restaurants are in South Dakota. In order to sell to them, I have to sell to my distributor who then sells to the restaurants. This distributor has owed me money since July. And has been a notoriusly slow pay for several years. The check is always "in the mail."

If I stop shipping to them, then the account doesn't get their wine and will most likely drop it off their list. Which could effect my business in the other states as well. Wine that WE sold to them....wine that the distributor in South Dakota is just collecting their mark-up on. The business was done in another state with someone our South Dakota distributor doesn't even know. It's FREE money if they just deliver the wine on time and to the right place. And pay us on time.

Normally, if a distributor doesn't pay me on time, i will not ship to them. But I need to to keep this account. And finding another distributor is very, very difficult at this time of year....well, really at all times of the year.  The number of suppliers continues to increase while distributors consolidate.  

And it is against the law to ship direct to an account outside of the state.

So basically, to keep my account, we have to continue going into the red with this distributor.

Oh, and WE got a bill from said distributor this week for samples. Are you kidding me??

The three tier system is great when winery-distributor-account all do their job. But when one of the parts is broken, the whole thing collapses.