Welcome, pimps and 'hos!

Wine Pimps
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Yo yo!

[gen_fro.gif]

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Nice, Taylor! Move that over to the left a couple of inches; that’s a killer avatar!

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Depends on who you ask!

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Can’t believe I’ve just noticed this little nook here…Frenchie is THE man!

Long live the pimps! At least now we can give some advice and not be afraid to say the wrong thing. How refreshing and unique!

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Unless you start hawking crap like this

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Nice…in split size…my favorite format.

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“It looks so much bigger up close”- [rofl.gif]

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Good for offlines.

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“Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?”

Ah, crap! But I don’t feel that old…

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Yeah, but you have my old avatar. Wanna fight? Love the Jets in good and bad times.

Welcome to the dark side where things are light. [d_sunny.gif]

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Ahem. She’s right, you know. Ho’s work for Pimps. As we all know, that is the exact opposite of the situation. Retailers work for customers. So “Pimps and 'Hos” may sound like it has a lot of Street Cred zing, but in fact, it shows you to be absurdly un-hip and out of it. Which you don’t want, especially since the idea of a place for us bottle-pushers to vent is really great, it’s why I signed up for this BBS. So fix it awready. Have a contest to re-name it, or something.

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“Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste…” I also ran what was the Greastest Wine Store on Earth during the 1990’s. Thats not a brag, its what importers from around the world would say as soon as they walked in the door. Its what Julia Child, Kermit Lynch, and those pesky wine writers said. It was for me the capping of a run in the wine world that started in 1979 and went until 1999. My name was different then." So can you tell me, can you guess my name?" I like the name of this Site by the way. I had started wine pirates long ago, and I always felt this industry needs more beserkers and less sheep.

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Interesting post, Mike, Mark, Melvin?

Was this the store formerly known as Big Y wines? I won’t claim to have visited every store in the world, but in the late 80s and early 90s, that was the best store I ever saw.

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Real name Macaylla: Gaelic; Child of Fire Also break the name down Macal La . Michael Law, Big Y Wines from 1988 to 1998. Thanx for the complement Ken. It really was the right place, at the right time. It was a google of your previous post (and Gordons high fiction of Big Y/Town and Country evolution that brought me here. This is the future, sites like this.

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I remember you, Michael! Good to hear you are well. Welcome to Berserkers!!! Who was the guy who handled Italian wines at Big Y for a while? I recall that he left to be a distributor’s rep in Mass, but can’t remember his name.

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I really should write a book about the stores rise and fall! The cast alone would be worthy of Shakespeare! The stores "buying’ in its glory years was done by a number of different people. As you know Gordon handled Burgundy, Alsace and Germany, Dawn Kessel handled the Magnum wall, and I handled the rest of the world. Accept one section, where a man I found at the bottle return station on the beer side of the store turned out to be a highly educated (published in the Nation mind you) man who had an interest in Italian wines. His name was Larry Basset, who left to become a salesman for one of the liquor/wine companies. He was cranky, sometimes a little sour, but he was a man of high ethical standards and was very good at sales. The warehouse giant by the way was a friend of mine I had met at a gym. Any guys who lift weights for fun make great stock clerks. Charming , funny man who went on to be a General Practitioner in Montreal. Both left before I did, and before a modern reenactment of Julius Caesar took place… but that’s another story!

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Larry Basset. That’s the man! His first name came back to me last night, but not his last. Very smart guy. The Warehouse Giant was a legend by the time I was a regular there. I never met him. Dawn came a bit later as I recall. Nothing was the same after you left. The new guy came in with big talk about making the place better, but did not.

Now it is an office max or CVS or something?

Why the name change?

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As I mentioned before, its a tale similiar to Julius Caesar. Gordon played Brutus, who as in the play, does not have a good end. I thought the name 'Big Y Wines" was honest, it connected with the history of the place. Gordon wanted a store that was a gourmet supply house. While my personal life was changing I made the mistake of thinking the crew I had assembled were trusted friends. Gordon, Dawn turned out to be otherwise, but I won’t go into the details.Suffice to say that after 10 years of hard work I was “asked” to resign. Gordon stepped into my shoes, and tried to turn the wine store into “Table and Vine”. While he was a very good salesperson, he had, in the words of Don D’Amour, “no follow through”. He was locked out of his own office and his entire staff was interviewed by security. Indeed, he “moved on”. After the Grocery boys brought in a nameless twit who quickly met the same fate. Now heres the part few know about: I phoned Don D’amour, owner of Big Y, and told him Paul Provost, a very good wine retailer should be considered for the job. Don thought he was happy, I knew where he was, and that he wasn’t. He was offered a very good contract, and in order to justify is salary, they bought our biggest competitor down in Springfield. Unfortunately, that was like the Red Socks buying the Yankees. When things settled down, Paul, and then Mike Quinlan (someone I taught about wine) took a business and with the help of the grocery store, turned it into something far too normal. Big still, good still, but not as good. They would have fired me a thousand times before I would work in a place that blared Debbie Boone over the speakers, which greeted me, one of the few times I visited Tand V. Nobody came to help. There was nothing open in back. Things rise, things fall. I had a great time running Big Y Wines, and “its good to be king, if just for a while”. I know nothing will compare with bringing someone in back who was just starting to learn, after a millionaire client left an open bottle of La Tache, sitting on the table. “Here …try this…I think you will like it.”

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I’m sorry to hear that. I guess I wasn’t paying that much attention at that time. I thought you had just chosen to leave and then they brought in Paul, then things went downhill.

We all have had the experience of liking a couple very much, then they get a divorce. There are things one may just be better off not knowing. Best wishes to you, Macaylla.

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Sorry Ken I didn’t get back to this sooner…I came here (by a google search) and was glad to see some old friends. What I really wanted to find was a site that I could build an idea on, similiar to our wine store. Its one thing to make your store comforting for wine lovers. It was really hard to get the big Fish…the many many people out there that walk into a wineshop and worry that if they say “white zin?” They will be laughed at.
This bit of information I will tell you is worth knowing: and I say it publicly: I had gender issues. No I didn’t want to become “Mrs. Doubtfire”, but I had life long issues. In 1999 when the staff found out they betrayed me by “warning” the company that I was going to walk in soon wearing a dress. Never happened, nor would I, having two small children at the time, let it happen. So in a plot of betrayal and lies, I was forced to “resign”. I have a very strong code of conduct: I did not fight, lie or sue to get out of it. My boss, who paid me for my time, can also fire me if he deems so. I left. Life became hard for a few years,but I recovered and things got better than ever. All four parents helped raise the kids and they have turned out wonderful. Life is very good. And my second wife is just as beautiful by the way! I hope your life and interest in wine can be so as well.
I will continue to work on the idea of a wine information center that is based on the principles of learning and understanding. Too many trolls (in Burgundy no less!) than any neophyte could take. Fun place for an old hack like me (with a bullet proof ego) but I think I will move on, in fact I am sure of it. Gordon, even though I may think he is a scoundrel, is running a small shop called “provisions” in Northampton. Stop by if you are in the area. I can be found pretty easy through Goggle. If you want to see what I was up to here read “When to drink Burgundy” In wine talk, post 42. See you someday! M