Winton Hills building submitted as possible location for service Winton Hills building submitted as possible location for service CINCINNATI — You can go to the liquor store, or you can go to the carry out, but soon you might not have to go any farther than your front door to grab a beer. Amazon is looking to enter the alcohol delivery business in Ohio. Prime Now LLC has submitted applications for alcohol permits in two locations – one in Cincinnati and one in Columbus. The Cincinnati area site is a warehouse building in Winton Hills. That building is already a hub for Amazon FLEX, a package delivery service operated by Amazon. If the state of Ohio approves the necessary permits, Prime Now LLC would be allowed to deliver beer, wine and low-proof alcohol. The types of products would be more similar to the kind of alcohol you can buy at the grocery store, not the stronger alcohol available only at Ohio liquor stores.   Amazon has already shown a willingness to try new ideas.

They recently opened a pick-up location near the University of Cincinnati campus. We talked to people in that area about the idea of Amazon bringing booze right to your front door. “I feel like it wouldn’t be too bad if you’re too lazy or something and you don’t want to go out, because I feel like a lot of college kids are like that,” said UC student Gabi Conard. There are some concerns, though. “I feel like there could be a lot of problems with it as well as identifying someone is of age to buy alcohol on the internet,” said UC Student Kurtis Kester. Sharon Johnson, an Amazon customer, said she likes the convenience of having something brought right to her home. "I do love the thought of having things arrive on my doorstep and I don't have to go out and lug them in,” Johnson said.Amazon is getting into the wine business for the second time after shuttering its efforts in that area three years ago.Currently, a little more than 1,000 wines, divided into five categories (red, white, rose, sparkling and dessert) are available for delivery in 12 states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia.

Shipping costs a flat $9.99 for up to six bottles of the same wine. There are no free or reduced shipping options for Amazon Prime members. Wines are listed and warehoused not by Amazon, but by individual sellers. The company is charging wineries a $39.99 monthly participation fee, plus a 15% cut of every sale, according to a report published by Sonoma’s Wine Industry Insight earlier this year. wine for cats ukIt appears the online retailer has been successful in its previously reported negotiations to secure low fixed rates on shipping and compliance companies for vendors.wine gift boxes nyc News of Amazon's plans for a wine marketplace surfaced in late September, when the company invited around 100 wineries to an event introducing the program in Napa, Calif.best wine coolers to buy

, an online marketplace for wine that offers free shipping on all bottles for $49 per year. Amazon has, of course, the great advantage of being the first place many shoppers turn to first: According to a Forrester survey released in July, 30% of online buyers say they start their shopping search at Amazon — twice the number who start with Google.best wine deals nz Amazon stopped selling wine in late 2009 after its shipping partner, New Vine Logistics, halted operations. best wine for bloodThe company is avoiding that pitfall this time around by putting shipping responsibilities in the hands of the wineries themselves.best wine from texas Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, isante_magazinewine red wine was the color of his eyes

announced in October that it was canceling its plan to sell wine. At the time, everyone (including the Wall Street Journal) thought it was because of the maze of state regulations.I learned this week of an issue completely unrelated to wine that had far greater repercussions for the world's largest internet retailer: sales tax. best wine region mapsNot just on wine, but on everything.best wine name in indiaCurrently Amazon collects sales tax for only five states: Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington. It gets away with not collecting sales tax in the huge California market because it has no brick-and-mortar shop here.However, in order to ship wine from California -- which was the plan -- Amazon would have had to open a retail outlet to comply with state law. has one in Berkeley for exactly this reason. ( also has a shop in New York that's so obviously for legal requirements that it will not take cash.)

The problem is, once that California store was open, even if it was only 100 square feet with two items for sale, Amazon the company would have become a California retail shop for the purposes of state tax law, and would have had to start collecting sales tax on everything sold in the Golden State.One of the main reasons Amazon is so attractive to consumers is its low prices. Adding 8.25% to the price of everything in California would eliminate much of that. The company calculated that the profit it made from selling wine nationwide wouldn't offset the potential loss of business from California alone.Moreover, the sales tax issue would quickly have compounded. Once cash-strapped state legislatures in Florida and Texas and everywhere else realized California was collecting sales tax from Amazon, they would have reached for their share of the pie.It's easy to say Amazon could have sold only wines from Washington and New York -- where they're already collecting sales tax -- and Oregon, which has no sales tax.