James Suckling has to be the most pretentious fop ever born. He astounds me.
This one is definitely a “trade side” level of pretentiousness and honestly, my single biggest pet peeve.
People announcing their “customer level”.
“Yes, I’m Mr. So-and-so, and I’m one of your biggest customers.”
What is the world is that? Can you really qualify that? How do you know?
Do you say the same dumb statement when you go to the grocery store? The furniture store?
BTW, I’ve never encountered someone that qualified that, and then turned out to be, one of our biggest customers. NEVER.
Ian - maybe the person was just being honest about the size of their ego…
If they weighed 20 stone, they would be making a safe assertion.
That’s sort of like how it seems every (small) business owner has stories of pushy jerks claiming “I know the owner!” Oh yeah. Sure you do… 
(Gasp) this thread sucks…how’s that?
Even if it WERE true, the expectation is so ridiculous, that you’d give superior service just for that fact. If they truly were a ‘biggest customer’, they should know that you’d know already…
On the other hand, before the Internet, it was different. You could walk into a wine store and ask if they have any X and the wine store owner would say “those are reserved for our biggest customers.” Case in point a wine store in or near Yountville very early 1990’s, probably 1990, I see multiple cases of Spottswoode on the floor, and at that time the four cult Napa cabs I was aware of were Spottswoode, Dunn HM, Grace, and Heitz MV. I asked for one bottle. The wine was not yet allocated, it had just come in. Young lawyer me with my young lawyer wife, pretty good demographic. Nope, I got the above quote verbatim.
In retrospect it was an eff you move with some sadism thrown in, but today he’d be laughed at (and Yelp’d/Berserkered*).
*[I hereby copyright, trademark, and patent Berserker as a verb meaning to out a bad merchant or winery. As in, “I Pobega’d the bottle instead of Audouzing it and Berserkered the merchant even though it was my fault for not giving it air”].
Back then people bought wine from a local merchant, people were not as comfortable getting on winery “mailing lists” or buying direct from wineries. I didn’t even know it was possible to get wine shipped to you (until I bought my first Willams Selyem in a restaurant and the phone number was on the cork and I thought I had discovered the Dead Sea scrolls. I immediately got on the Selyem and Dunn lists and then a couple of years later Parker started reviewing the new cult cabs and off to the races and bye bye brick and mortar for Napa wine).
And of course there was no Wine-Searcher. So. if you were from out of town you represented zero return business while locals were loyal. I remember getting really excited finding the last two bottles of Caymus Special Selection 1987 on a bottom shelf in a wine store, and 1986 Wine o’ the Year Beringer PR cab in a gas station, and Gaja regular 1985 buried invisibly under the bottom row of the wine display in Safeway; no other way to get these wines that I was aware of other than to scrounge. Or to be a “big customer.”
So the “biggest customer” thing was really a thing, pre-1994. OTOH, as stated above, the wine store owners knew exactly who their best customers were, they saw them as often as we now clilck on “complete purchase.” Certainly every week. So announcing it would be ludicrous, like a pimply 18 year old at the stage door saying “I’m friends with the band.”
For some local wine stores which had some great California cabs I was known as the only guy willing to pay $40 for a bottle of wine – I was nuts about the Venge Groth Reserves – or talk about such wines, so they didn’t begrudge me a bottle. One owner I liked kept pushing this new $40 “Maya” thing on me, absolutely raving about it, so I tried the new release 1989. Eh.
Get off my lawn.
I’m 93 points on that. Here, have some 1989 Las Cases or 1995 Margaux. It’s their best vintages ever.
It didn’t end in the 90’s, at least not everywhere. There are two small stores I visit occasionally where I get offered items not on the shelf and discounts that are not extended to everyone. I am not one of the “biggest customers” as I only stop few times a year but usually purchase multiple cases when I am there. FWIW, I have known the owners of both stores for 20 years or more now and I never have asked to be treated special.
I will agree that this happens much less at larger stores these days. I remember being in a shop in Annapolis about 15 years ago and a new employee was ringing up my order and it was way more than I was expecting. I quickly made eye contact with one of the staff who had been there for years who came to the front. She looked at the register and quietly explained to the new employee that I don’t pay those prices and rang it up with the discount that those of us on the mailing list received. The store has since changed its pricing practice so that the marked price is the price for all customers but it took a change in ownership of the store for that to happen.
I have gotten a good discount in a local shop on of all things Arnoux RSV. I was not a frequent customer but I came in once and met the owner while looking at the regular shelves of Burgundy. We struck up a conversation discussing different vintages, appellations, etc… Turns out he was a Burghead and so we went into the cold storage room and he started showing some wines not on the website or that were shown to regular customers. He seemed to appreciate that I liked Burgs. I got a nice 25% discount on the 98 version of RSV. Nice gesture on his side. Genuine conversation and discussion leads to good things sometimes.
Yes, they use the same stupid statement at other stores. My wife works at Whole Foods and hears this way too much: “Do you know how much money I spend here?!?” It’s akin to “Do you know who I am?!?” Both are proof that the person saying it is neither important nor intelligent. Where I work, all of our truly best customers come in with no sense of entitlement, thank me for access to allocated wines (those people who want them), and would never say anything remotely like the statements above. Of course, we also have the other types who think they’re our best customers.
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George, Berserk is already a WB verb but has a somewhat different meaning than what you propose for Berserker…
The irony here is that Wine Library treats all their customers so well, you don’t need to announce that you’re a big swinging you-know-what.
I think you should just feel flattered. It’s like somebody going up to a celebrity and saying “I’m one of your biggest fans.” They probably just want you to know that they like your shop and that they feel a sense of loyalty to you. I’d just smile and say “thanks”.
Eric, there’s a ridiculous feeling of entitlement that those people have. When you encounter them, it’s very clear they aren’t just saying such things to compliment the business or express loyalty. They think you owe them special treatment and want that to be clear. It definitely fits the theme of the thread.
This is smart. There are good existing customers, but you have to look at potential customers as well…
Dead on. What’s funny is that if they were a big/frequent customer, they would know that, and not have to drop that line 
I would say 99% of the time people say it they are looking for something that they just missed out on (whether it was a limited time offer, or something that just sold out) or are trying to get something for nothing (I could start a whole thread with what people ask for here).
I don’t think so…you’re doing your best to highlight the wines you want to enjoy with their food. To me it’s a compliment to the restaurant that you want your wines to show their best with the food they serve.
Exactly…they have provided nothing but outstanding service every time I buy there. When I see posts like this I’m reminded that I really should be looking at their web page more often…but the bulk of my business goes to the store that supports my friends. Those are the stores that I want my $ going to because they treat the people that are important to me well…and still manage to give me one hell of a deal.