JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi package stores are seeing improvements in alcohol deliveries months after a warehouse crisis left shelves empty. Still, the backlog remains, and legal action against the state’s contractor is expanding.

Nathan McHardy, owner of Briarwood Wine and Spirits, said conditions have improved since earlier this year when empty shelves made it look like his store was closing.

“Is it better than it was? Absolutely. Is it perfect? No,” McHardy said.

Backlog cut by more than half

The Department of Revenue now tracks pending cases in real time. At the peak of delivery problems, the backlog exceeded 220,000 cases. Numbers from May 24 show the backlog dropped to just under 106,000 cases.

McHardy said current numbers are lower.

“The reserve case amount, I think, is somewhere on the order of about 85,000 now,” McHardy said.

The daily case limit increased from 100 to 200 cases starting Memorial Day. A new warehouse is scheduled to become operational next year.

McHardy said his store changed its ordering process to adapt.

“We would normally get one really big order a week and then a couple little fill-ins that were just special orders and whatnot. We just changed the way that we ordered, and we order every single day,” McHardy said.

Orders currently have an eight-day lead time.

“Where I hope to be is: place an order one day, get it the next,” McHardy said.

Class action lawsuit filed

McHardy is not among them, but some Mississippi stores are pursuing legal action. The latest filing seeks class action status.

Tim Porter, one of the attorneys representing the stores, said that one pending issue would consolidate separate cases from the Coast and Jackson.

“We believe that there’s enough commonality in the types of damages that we can come up with a very good formula that will compensate each liquor store based upon their actual losses,” Porter said.

The lawsuits target Ruan, the Iowa-based company contracted by the state to manage the ABC warehouse. The stores claim Ruan rushed and failed to test a new software and delivery system.

“This is also about small stores, large stores, others that rely on this for a living, and weren’t able to put things on their shelves for their consumers. And in some instances, the consumers went elsewhere, and they won’t come back,” Porter said.

The new ABC warehouse has been built, and the latest information from the state is that it is expected to be operational in 2027.

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