Seattle, coming soon is the largest wine shop in the Pacific Northwest.
Wine World superstore to open by Thanksgiving MyWallingford Wallingford | Seattle | Washington" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Very cool. Thanks for posting the link.
While I live nearby, and wish them well, I can’t imagine why I would ever really shop there. I tend to have fairly specific interests, and am well served by my usual shops, who either have, or will get for me, anything I want that is available in the state.
What I don’t need is aisle after aisle of wines I don’t care about. I’ll check it out when their oft delayed opening actually happens, but don’t expect much. If the privatization of hard liquor does pass, then I think their size will serve them well, as most smaller wine shops don’t have the space to handle hard alcohol in volume.
Sweet fancy Moses.
Those are my thoughts to a Tee, Chuck. There’s the occasional thing I can’t get locally, but don’t really find myself mail ordering much these days. But I’m sure I’ll drop by and see what they’ve got. Maybe they’ll impress me.
I can’t really see actually how they are going to make a go of it. Seattle seems pretty well supplied with some very good wine shops. The only niche I can see is liqour, as it can be hard to find decent armangac, cognac, some scotches, etc.
There was a blurb about a locker with $400 wines but with our tax being the highest in the nation I doubt I’ll be buying anything from them. I also have a feeling that places like Esquin have nothing to worry about.
Chuck until a couple weeks ago I would have been inclined to agree with you. However, on a recent visit to Scottsdale I popped into a Total Wine. I believe Total Wine is a chain and Wine World will be a one off…but the scale of the store sounds similar. I was stunned by the amount of bordeaux at Total Wine. Multiple vintages (2001-2007) of many of my favorite producers (Leoville Barton, Leoville Poyferre, Pontet Canet, Ducru Beaucaillou, etc). There is not a store in Seattle stocking a fraction of the Bordeaux that Total Wine does. If Wine World does something like this they may get a little more of my attention.
Tom
As to the tax thing.Liquor was actually cheaper In Sitka,where everything is at least 30% higher,than at home.One of reasons I buy very little alchohol in Wash.
In addition to having a huge selection, the thing that is cool to me is the daily tastings (assuming they’re free like most of the other shops in town). I am still relatively new to being serious about wine, so the chance to taste more often is definitely appealing.
Tom, if that’s what they end up being, great. However, for a number of reasons, I believe they will simply evolve into a discount/closeout high volume operation that won’t be of much interest to the majority of local bulletin board members. First and foremost, they are a new store. They will only be able to buy what is currently offered via WA distributors (i.e. the same stuff any other wine shop has access to, at the same price). Second, WA is currently a COD state, no terms, no volume discounts. Store pays for merchandise as it is delivered. To build a large inventory with back vintages is a cash intensive process, and most new operations are spending their money elsewhere to start. I was solicited several times to invest in this operation (I had no interest and didn’t pursue it any further than the materials they sent me), and am aware that they were forging ahead without having attracted all the investors they wanted as of a couple months ago. This doesn’t bode well for cash flow, and the basic projections I saw were pretty optimistic. One misstep or missed projection and problems could arise. Third, while back vintages of Bordeaux are available thru a select distributor or two (Bordeaux Wine Locators, for example), BWI’s pricing model in WA State means that out of state retailers can buy the same bottle from BWI, mark it up for retail, and sell it for less money than the WA WHOLESALE price. No shop in WA can be particularly competitive with that model for Bordeaux. Fourth, I don’t give a rip about Bordeaux from the 21st century, as I’m an old fart. 
In Summary - this won’t be a hit with board members, but will attract 99.99% of the general population.
Just like Safeway doesn’t attract Whole Foods customers, but both seem to operate fine… ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
“Northwest wines will take center stage, occupying the entire West wing of the store”.
What Seattle does NOT need is another wine shop, big or small focused primarily on Washington wine. The market is completely saturated right now.
Well, it DOES provide a place to park a few hundred more cases of WA wine instead of it piling up at the various wineries!