I already spoke to a buddy of mine who has sold nearly every BerserkerDay, and he’s got an amazing offer…my immediate response after reacting to the offer is ‘are you making any money?’ and he confirmed he was, indeed, making a profit, and definitely more than wholesale. Generating any revenue, much less net profit, is going to be essential for these producers
11 Likes
If this event is in July, obviously nobody is going to be shipping wine at that time. It will be held for cooler weather (that would be around October, in my neck of the woods at least).
Then, you’re looking at three months or so until OG Berserker Day.
My question, in other words, is whether this could have unintended consequences, meaning that people would buy proportionately less in January because they loaded up in October?
1 Like
Cannibalization is always possible, but never turns out to be one to one. If I buy 6 bottles in July am I likely to buy 6 bottles less in January. I doubt it.
In theory, the cannibalization would come from other offers we see from July to January.
2 Likes
I’ve never worked in wine, but did work in a highly seasonal business with massive inventory build ups. Moving any sort of volume at a net profit during the trough of sales created little pockets of liquidity that helped us through the tough parts of the year. There are times when it was enough to sell at a small gross margin because of how much the interest on our ABL was crushing what liquidity we did have and just getting it down was a success.
I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to buy in July since we have a lot of travel coming up, but I will be buying.
1 Like
I suggest we hold one mini Berserker Day per month and allow ship-held orders to remain as such — no need to complicate logistics for buyers or producers.
To make this manageable, line up all interested producers and use a randomizer to assign them to monthly slots. For example, if 100 producers want to participate (not sure of the actual number), divide them evenly into five groups. Then schedule events like:
- June 15 – BD Summer Daze Relief Rally
- July 15
- August 15
- September 15
- October 15 – Harvest Celebration
This structure gives producers a spotlight and buyers some breathing room. It also helps with cash flow for community members supporting these wineries.
I’m not sure I fully agree here. My concern is that holding these WB Day-style events too frequently might actually dilute their impact. If they start to feel too routine, it would engagement and reduced excitement from the community over time.
The occasional nature of BD, even if just once or twice a year , helps preserve that sense of anticipation (and fomo haha), which is part of what drives strong participation. While rotating producers monthly sounds appealing, the novelty might wear off and the events wouldn’t generate the same level of buzz or urgency.
On the logistics front, I’m not sure how holding wines until October/November would be that big of an issue. In fact, I think its actually beneficial to some sellers as I’ve had to wait ~3 months to get some of my WB shipment so if we hold it in July hopefully by October even the smaller producers will have their ducks in line
8 Likes
Fair question if you were referring to a normal population of logical people…but Berserkers will not be deterred from overstuffing our cellars by such obstacles as eye-watering credit card bills!
4 Likes
Might as well have asked if Imelda Marcos was not going to buy new shoes in January because she bought a bunch in October and already has a thousand pairs in her closets.
5 Likes
If you hold too many are you cannibalizing a wineries opportunity to have customers re-up at a better (full) price?
If something is always on sale and I know it’s coming up I might just end up waiting.
This has doomed many a retailer who constantly puts out coupons…
Some wineries might really need the bump and it’s great for them to have that opportunity, but it might be a fine line.
Just a thought from a consumer…
3 Likes
True for producers that have a little breadth in their lineup. But many BD participants have a wide range, so what that ends up doing is perhaps introducing new customers to a particular line they haven’t tried before.
I think the pluses are highly favorable for producers that have a game plan.
1 Like
I think a Bday in mid-July is a great idea (I can buy my own birthday presents this year!) and I assume that wineries will make their own decision about whether participating is a net positive in terms of the various concerns noted above, just as Berserkers will decide whether they want to purchase wine in July or wait for the traditional Bday. I would limit offerings to wine only (no “newbies”), which will help distinguish this from the “real” event.
4 Likes
This is definitely a good comparison. Cash flow, especially around bottling, is sometimes more important than profit.
A bottling can run $50-80K, and it’s pretty rare that we have that lying around. So a discount that equals the interest rate on my credit line is a no brainer. And since not bottling at the correct time generally leads to a lower quality product, robbing Peter to pay Paul can be a necessary choice. It’s odd to say that occasionally selling at very low/no profit margin is absolutely the right choice, but there are scenarios in agriculture/wine where it’s the choice that keeps you moving forward.
8 Likes
Late to this, not sure why I missed it.
I agree with @Robert_M_yers that the goal of any winery is probably not to have to participate in BD at all. I do think it can hurt the brand in the long term to rely on too many sales from BD, despite how amazing BD is!
My little winery has been thrust into providing the bulk of my support before it can actually carry it, simply because the other industry I’m in has tanked and no longer is very reliable. I’m asking way too much of it in a challenging market and I’ve had to rely on a little too many sales to just be able to pay the bills than I would like. I’m right-sizing the winery and in future, it will have a lot less library stuff to sell, so it is temporary - and therefore I feel it’s still OK.
So right now, in this instance - I would love to be able to offer some wine at a great price in July to help with label and bottling costs. I agree with whoever said it should probably be a smaller offering than during regular BD, so as not to steal that events thunder. Maybe a package deal, or a few SKU’s only.
10 Likes
I do like this idea of limiting the offerings so as not to steal the thunder of BD. I would support that.
2 Likes
I think the July (or August) event would be welcome by most wineries but every winery has its own model. Cheers - Karen
2 Likes
Todd & Fellow Berserkers:
Count Bohème in on any mini-BD type event – always fun; delighted to participate!!
Kurt
1 Like
Excited to see what’s coming.
4 Likes
I’ll update the OP as well but plan to have the forums (the public forum for wine offers, the Monopole Crü forum for non-wine and some unique wine offers) launched around 7:30 am Pacific Time on Friday
The forums will run through end of day (late) Monday the 14th, so you all have plenty of time to shop!
8 Likes
Will all of the offers be posted the first day, or will they be added periodically throughout the weekend?