You wanna do WHAT?

Just got a call from someone who “just started an on line wine merchant” and wanted to do sales presentations in OUR wine bar in OUR wine shop to OUR customers.

Clueless or balls of steel?

My guess is he is clueless to the fact that you are a wine bar and retailer and they were looking for a wine bar to try to drum up business. Still really lame though…

It all depends. How do they spell Brasil? [highfive.gif]

[rofl.gif]

I’m sure their business will be very successful. They obviously have a wonderful plan.

Oh don’t be coy, who was it?

Ooooh. Synergy and cross-marketing. Sounds like a business dream come true… champagne

Bruce

Was it Lyle?

[snort.gif]

When we were in the early stages of researching our shop (back in 2004) I was in the Bay Area and stopped in at a very well established (if a bit quirky) shop in the SFO area to check it out and ask a few questions. I’d found their web site very entertaining… although maybe light years behind the on line store curve of that day. [Wow! Just checked their site and they haven’t moved an inch in the past eight years. It must work for them, I guess.]

The owner (an apparently rather eccentric older gentleman) refused to even give me the time of day when I openly told him why I was there and that I’d really appreciate some candid thoughts on the business. I found that attitude to be about par for the course, with the exception of a few really wonderful people who were a whole lot closer to our planned location than the SF Peninsula to South OC (as in less than 25 miles, in two cases).

All that said… your guy is either totally clueless or just plain ballsy. In this world, especially in this economy, ANYONE even remotely close to your business model is competition. While it’s one thing to ask for some insight, it’s a completely different thing to think pimping your own biz in someone else’s space would be OK. DUMB!!!