The exchanges would be a milestone cooperative effort between the finicky three tiers. So this is a pretty exciting time for us. The shift is seismic. Retailers large and small still sift through paper manuals to gather data about prices, sales and new products from some 4,500 distributors nationwide. To this day, some retailers hand over cash to truck drivers delivering vodka, wine and gin.
Suppliers also have much to gain.
Traditionally, they have had little access to what's happening at the retail level. Exchanges could gather juicy data about consumer buying patterns and other barroom trends. Suppliers, in turn, could buy this fine-grain data and use it for targeted promotions. There's a democratization of business now because of the Internet. That means more and more power has to be shared.