Wow. Things must have changed a lot ITB since I’ve played in the sandbox. Not many distributors cared very much about my business in the old days, even though my success was “mutually beneficial”
It’s not so much the distributors these days as it is the wineries themselves. With wine-searcher.com the winery can see in an instant what everyone is charging for their pride and joy. A quick phone call (or email) to the local wholesaler results in the kind of phone call the OP received.
Some wineries are pretty loose about it while others are unbelievably anal. I got a phone call once threatening to cut me off if I didn’t bring my price into line immediately. This Napa Valley winery priced their white blend at $39 which to me is an odd price. Why not just set the price at $40 and let everybody sell it for $39.99? I think $38.99 looks funny so I decided to work slightly light and priced it at $37.99. So I get a phone call from the sales rep, apologizing profusely, asking me to help get the winery off her back by setting my price within their guidelines. And exactly what are their guidelines, I asked? The shelf price had to be within $1.00 of their suggested retail. So $38.00 was okay but $37.99 would get me cut off from ever doing business with this winery again. I like the sales rep so I changed the price to $39, sold through my remaining inventory and have never carried the wine again.
We often find wines dirt cheap on wine searcher, often at or below our wholesale cost. Go to the website, sure enough, its sold out, but “here’s a better deal on some plonk,” or order it and get an e-mail two days later that they were sold out and get an offer on some plonk.
We also find that stores in NJ are just above wholesale and they have the wine. With some research, we find that sometimes the wholesalers dealing with NJ are cutting great deals on bulk sales. To stop it from happening, the wineries have to go after the wholesaler or switch wholesalers.
We have a couple of small wineries that we are direct with that dictate the sale price and sometimes a limit on the number of bottles per individual buyer. We have followed their directions and it has proven to be to our benefit with increases in allocation along with a little leeway on pricing “off line.”
On the flip side, we have turned away several wines/wineries whose wine we’ve seen blown out at wine library, Cinderella, etc.
“Branding.” I hate that word. It’s the cultivation of a product, especially in a high end market, to cater to a specific set of consumers looking to buy as a status symbol, more than an indicator of quality. They want their wine in a specific tier of wines, and think they can compete, despite obvious flaws. LVMH has done this splendidly, with an advertising campaign, product placement strategy, and overall marketing scheme that allows retailers to price their wines at $55 dollars a bottle, because LVMH put the hard work and money into the brand in order to give it the appearance that it’s worth it, while other brands expect to slap a story about their hard work onto the label or wooden case insert, and tell the wholesalers that they better go out and sell (at the right price), otherwise their allocation gets shortened. It’s all about mutual benefits… If the producer decides to invest in marketing, they’re reaching their intended audience much faster than going through 2 other levels of interaction to get to the customer who inevitably drinks the damn wine. It saves on the wholesaler from having to convince their customers of the need for their product, and it saves the retailer from having to deal too much with customers beyond pointing them in the direction of the label on their shelf.
You can PM this New Yorker the name of your shop. I’m always looking for a new place to buy wine.
I see you lowered the price even further.
Omg… They’re gonna cut you off if you don’t raise the price?! As if there wasn’t plenty of other wines/wineries to support that are begging for exposure and sales. Next time they tell you what to price your wines at, in your store, kindly ask them if they’d like to split the bills, rent and field customer complaints, queries and other random emails.
If you enjoy “that” wineries selections and want to continue to carry their brand, speak with the rep, the supplying manager or the winery itself and express your reasoning behind the pricing. I’m quite sure an agreement can be reached. If they’re still stubborn, move on.
Better yet, post the price they want you to have it at, and offer in-store discounts on said wine that puts it right at the price you want it to be.
I am far from an expert on all the regs, but I thought I recalled seeing a reg. which states that the the retail price is set by the retailer and can not be dictated by others. I am not sure how cutting you off from future purchases fits in with that.
Well, I thought my original price was fair to all involved…but when they said they wanted to take it back after I have paid for it I figured I would have some fun…I’ll be in Napa later this month, have not seen an invite to the winery.
Holy crap, I love your wine description!!
Get it while you can! The winery requested the distributor pick up this wine because we are selling it for too low of a price. Just 6 bottles left.
$99.99
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I found one online retailer listing wines just a few dollars above wholesale that weren’t even offered to them and hadn’t even been offered to our distributor! I flipped a nut, called them on it and had them remove it the wines from their site.
Other than that, if a customer calls me and says “I can find this wine at “x price” which is lower than my wine club price” I tell them that is a great deal, they should take advantage of it, and I’d be more than happy to offer them the same price on that particular wine. Then I explain the difference in profit margins by various retailers, and let them know once they buy it, they can price it however they want. Wineries need to protect their wine club members, and when these instances happen, you should continue to take care of your members, and then make your broad-market sales decisions from there.
t-bone,
I wish all wine clubs shared your vision. I recently had the exact opposite experience with a well known napa winery. They had a 3 bottle set which I could find on winesearcher with shipping for 100 less than the wine club price.
They told me they would look into it. One week later no response.
Guess I should buy online and not from the winery.
It’s amazing how this one works with certain distributors over and over again. They literally never learn.