The OLD Oakville Grocery Bankruptcy - Finally concluded

WINE TALK
1

So, some of you may remember some fairly emotional posts from a few years ago regarding Oakville Grocery going bankrupt, and many of us trusting vintners (hey, what’s more NAPA than Oakville Grocery, right?) getting left out to dry. Yours truly delivered $1620 worth of wine - which was sold by them to customers - and never saw a cent back. You might recall that the debt was dealt with separately from the assets, and we vintners became a long list of creditors. Fast forward: in today’s mail was a check dated July 1, 2009, made out to my company for $185.68. Enclosed was a letter from a company listed as “The Assignee for Oakville Grocery Company, Inc.,” stating that uncashed checks would become void after 90 days of issuance. As of today, more than 60 of these days have gone by, and I just today received the check…for a fraction of the price of the wine that was ordered and delivered. Well, at least now it is over. [cry.gif]

2

Well, that certainly sucks. Sorry to hear you were burned for so much money ultimately, as I assume were many other small producers.

3

Wow, not a good return. Sorry

4

Yeah, it was 3 or 4 years ago, but boy, it would have been nice to see that money come through. I wonder if others also got their checks as I did mine…which is why I thought I’d post and let others know at least one person got their “settlement.” At the time, on eBob, this was a pretty hotly discussed item…I think 16,000 reads and hundreds of posts worth! Greg P., I think Dain, and a host of others came forward and said how they got stuck as well.

5

Yeh, that was a big thread when it happened. I remember no one would mention the retailers name until Grep P showed up. blahblah [tease.gif]

6

Merril if the check was not from a Trustee in Bankruptcy or by Order of a Court that may just be what the buyer of the assets chooses to pay you. If you are really not satisfied with the amount, check it out with a local Attorney. The Statute of Limitations for suit may be a problem though. It is likely 4 years.

7

Thanks, Jack. We went through all the legal maneuvers and had an attorney file a bunch of stuff for us which is probably why I saw any return at all. It was pretty time-consuming. I’ve moved on and will use my whopping 11 cents on the dollar to buy seed for the cover crop for my vineyard.

8

An iconic place, another one bites the dust…

9

No, Oakville Grocery as you have always known it is still functioning in the same way - the consumer would not know the difference. This was a bankruptcy and subsequent sale/resumption of business as usual that occurred a few years ago. That’s why I used the term OLD in the title…there are a bunch of people around who were pretty familiar with the whole scenario.
The only thing that is new right now is that the settlement checks have been mailed, and the entire debacle finally concluded.

10

I did not even know this.

You know, I don’t get it. This place is always packed. What can their overhead be? It’s essentially a house that employs people working for probably double min wage at best that sells soda for like $2.59 a bottle and apples for a buck fifty. How do you not make money

11

Greg - unfortunately, someone (I think it was purchased from the original family) decided to expand it and opened one in San Francisco, in Palo Alto, in San Ramon (or Pleasanton) and one in Healdsburg - if I recall correctly. They basically ended up having to close all of them except the one in Healdsburg and the orginal on Hwy 29 at the time - again IIRC. That killed them…

It was a store that worked very well in wine country but did not translate well outside wine country.

12

I very much remember the thread and have been very maturely flipping them off every time I drive past.

13

Hi Merrill,

We just got our check too! It was also 11 cents on the dollar – a whopping $45.85. Fortunately, they only owed us for one case. It’s only the second time in 10 years that we’ve been stiffed.

We celebrated our good fortune by going out to dinner last night at Bank, the bar/cafe in the Westin Verasa in Napa. La Toque restaurant is at the same location and chef Ken Frank does the food for both venues. It’s really good. I had the wild boar sausage with roasted tomatoes over polenta and Steve had a steak.

carole

14

I would be happy with 11 cents on the dollar in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Sorry to be so grim, but I would have expected nothing.

15

Don’t know that restaurant, Carole. Did the $45.85 cover the check? [shock.gif]

16

We DID expect nothing! That’s why we celebrated. It was like free money!


Not quite, Merrill, but it came close.


carole

17

We got lucky. I sold wine to the one in SF and got paid. Being Italian and walking with a limp has it’s benefits. (Actually my broker stayed on top of them.)

18

Sorry to be so real, but I sold them the wine, and have expected payment of some sort for the wine right up until the end. Am I satisfied with roughly 10% of what I was due? No way. Do I understand that in this crazy business world it’s “OK” and within the approved “framework” for poorly managed businesses to screw the little guy? Yes, unfortunately.

Peter Carg - I personally sold the wine directly to OG, also into the SF location.

19

There was also one in Downtown Los Gatos. Their locations in Palo Alto and Los Gatos were in super expensive real estate - Los Gatos Old Town and in the Stanford Shopping Center. I think the dot com bust really hurt them financially. Anyway, there’s no excuse for screwing your suppliers.
-Dave-

20

Just received my check as well, dated 7/1 with the same 90 day cashing deadline. 11 cents on the dollar.