How do you deal with "Well, Total Wine/Costco has it for..."

[Arv_R]

@JonC

Both TW and Costco have direct import or private label/sourced wines and of course your Jackson Family, Constellation, Treasury Wine Estates, VWE etc portfolio brands. I’ve found some nice things at both, but in general I might hit either of them once or twice a year.

Having worked at solid, small (maybe 1100 square feet) indie shop in recent years, in principle we didn’t stock wines from the big 2 distributors in our market Glazers and RNDC. Let alone, a lot of junk and manipulated wine in their books, there is no point to have overlapping inventory with bigger competitors who secure bulk deals not even listed on their (Glazers and RNDC) ordering portals. The lay customer likely doesn’t understand the regional chain grocer, bigger competition gets better pricing, sells in volume, have more storage capacity etc… so there’s basically no financial sense in stocking commercial brand wine if your competition 5 blocks away carries La Crema, Meiomi or etc for $10 cheaper and you kill your margin to align with competitor’s prices.

Aside from one-off special orders around the holidays or from via customer request for an oaky California chard (a good regular customer), we didn’t order from them. Wines in the shop had the highest margin because our selections were unique in the neighbhorhood and every bottle was tasted and hand-picked after a sales rep visit with open bottles.

In recent months, Skurnik moved to RNDC, so the shop did have to crack and start ordering Skurnik wines from RNDC. We did have occasional new faces in the shop visiting town often echo “I don’t recognize any of these wines”. Some would take it in stride and still shop with us, some would promptly leave. It would bring a smile of pride out of us.

Overall, legit independent shops should limit overlap in a saturated area and focus on rotating curation of wines not found at grocery chains, big box stores, club warehouses etc. Particularly in Texas, we have around 20 to 25 different and solid distributors who solely tailor their business strictly for independent stores, focus on low intervention, traditional farming and production, biodynamic, organic practices, no chemicals/additives etc.

That sounds interesting in theory but unless you’ve built up your own native client base, it seems like it will mean every bottle has to be hand sold. I think this model might work better in resort/vacation towns, where visitors are more consciously open to trying, and desiring, something new.

[dougwilder]

I see this a lot in my day job with a Napa Valley Estate winery. People respond to information I create for them telling me they can find it for $10 less at another retailer. They don’t know what to say when I point out they are looking at an older vintage, they will need to pay higher shipping and they have no idea how it is stored.

[Thomas_Keim]

To be frank - the only wines this is going to happen with is Kendall Jackson, Martini and all the mega-purple cuvees from Gallo. The best thing to do is to treat the wines like liquor (markup wise) and keep a good, everyday price.

Total Wine is going to $9.99 KJ Chard once a month, you keep an $11.97 price on it EVERYDAY. The rest of your competition is going to be $14.99, so your price will always be competitive.

You don’t have to always be the cheapest, just the most competitive.

[JonC]

Long-running and estabished bottle shop 50 years running, a fixture in the neighborhood. The wine section is the heart and soul of the shop. Every bottle was sampled and hand-picked for a spot on the shelves. Any given month we sent invoice payments to around 20 different wine distributors. We didn’t mind if new faces/visitors head to Whole Foods for their Vueve Clicquot, Meiomi or KJ. I no longer work there, but this buying philosophy has served it well.

[W.baier]

interesting subject since i live in buffalo and costco is opening soon .The big issue can they sell wine/liquor here since they discount so much as it will certainly have a affect on the mom and pop stores .Just wondering what the the thought is about this

[KayW]

Nailed it. I buy from a small shop in ATL bc the dude there is straight up magic. He somehow knows everything that’s in my cellar, knows my palate and texts me when he finds something he knows I’ll like. He’s got my credit card and is authorized to use it when he gets something in that he knows I’ll appreciate. Totally a concierge type service which I happily pay for. OP just has to find a bunch of people like me. It’s about values. And I value terrific service over money. It’s also super easy. I don’t have to drive to TW or Costco or wherever and fight through crowds or deal with people who have zero idea what they’re doing. Srsly, OP, @B_Davies I’m sure there must be other people who value this type of personalized service and attention. And I sincerely wish society could stop focusing so much on money. It’s just sad.

[B_Beachy]

I thinks it’s more accurate to say, “for your money, you value good service over bottom tier pricing.”

Unfortunately, I’m not sure there is a way in commercial transactions to stop focusing on money unless you are lucky enough to have so much it doesn’t matter.

[KayW]

Lucky, huh?