TN: Bottom Feeding at TotalWines...(short/boring)

[Jim_Stewart]

These are wines that carry the shelf-talker “Winery Direct”. My understanding is that these are the highest margin wines that TW carries and that there is extraordinary pressure on the TW “wine associates” to move the “Winery Direct” wines.

Not entirely true. Most of their classed growth bdx are “winery direct.” These are unlikely to be among their highest margin wines and I doubt their associates are pushing Grand Puy Lacoste.

I think it’s extremely likely that their margins are very high on those wines. Total is probably buying directly in Bordeaux at the lowest prices possible and then sending the wines through importer/distributor channels that take very little margin out. If Total didn’t have relatively large margins on those wines, I am pretty sure they wouldn’t call them “Winery Direct”. Their associates aren’t pushing those wines because most customers aren’t looking for them, and most of their employees know so little about wine that they probably wouldn’t be comfortable trying to sell classed growth Bordeaux.

This is so generally true that running into the rare exception is almost shocking

[Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m]

Probably damn near everybody on this board knows way more about wine than pretty much every TW employee, wine buyers included.

[TomHill]

Been doing some more digging around.
Not been able to find out much about Saranty. There seems to be some association w/ William Deutsch Imports,
both located in White Plains, but I can’t determine that connection. Saranty was founded in 1994, about the time TW was starting to expand aggressively.
But it is privately held & can’t find the people behind. My guess is that the Trone bros are involved in it and it’s a sham importer set up to
import wines for TW at a very low markup.
Here in NM, there is a wine distributor that imports the Saranty wines for TW. They cannot, by law, be owned by TW, but probably another sham distributorship
that TW has set up. I’ve heard stories that these big trucks pull up into the warehouse parking lot briefly, then journey on to the two NM TW’s. Not legal, as best I am told.
By NM law, the distributorship must also sell to other wine retailers. But the issue has never been pressed by any NM retailers that I know of. And, of course,
no wine reps from this distributorship make calls on any of the other retailers. If any retailer would force the issue, trying to buy the Saranty wines, I suspect they
would be given a bogus wholesale price list that would make them not competitive w/ the TW shelf prices. But, given that the Saranty wines are mostly
crap wines, I can’t imagine why a NM retailer would seek to do this.
You can, of course, get some European estates at TW for very attractive prices. That is because these estates can go thru multiple importers. When those estates
sell to Saranty, I’m sure the markup Saranty takes is bare bones. But I’m sure that there are some estates that don’t sell to Saranty. But this is probably how TW has
developed a reputation for being a source of low cost wines. But price comparisons I’ve made on a number of Calif wines, they are not particularly bargains compared
to other NM retailers. These are wines that go thru the other, non-sham, distributorships.
All of this is perfectly legal & above board and an example of the Trones manipulating the system aggressively to their advantage. And in view of the ethics/principals
that you see in today’s business world and back in Wash, or dismal lack thereof, this is all pretty small potatoes.
Tom

A bit more. The two NM TotalWines go thru almost exclusively thru a distributor here in NM by the name of Johnson Bros. Starting in StPaul,
I gather they have a bunch of distributorships in a bunch of states. I suspect they take a minimal markup when the sell to TW. By law here in NM,
they must sell to any restaurant/wine retailer at the same price. One retailer I know requested a price list from them an was refused. A clear
violation of the NM law. But, given the quality of the Saranty Wines and what’s on the shelf at TW, I don’t know why they’d want
to deal w/ JohnsonBros. And I have not been able to track down an address or phone # for them in Albq.
I was told by the guy out at TW that JohnsonBros has a small warehouse in Albq. Which would square w/ the story I heard that these large trucks
stop briefly at JohnsonBros and then head off to deliver the goods to the two TWs. Again, probably not legal.
Against my better judgement, I ventured into TW on Sat. Almost all of the WineryDirect imports are thru Saranty. Checking a few of the big-name Bdx reds,
some were coming thru PalmBay Importers in FL. Nothing about Saranty on the label. But also a bunch of them came thru Saranty as well. So a lot of the
big name wineries in Europe must sell to several different importers in this country, including Saranty. Which I why you can see them at other stores
other than TW. But just not coming thru Saranty.
I was tempted to buy one of the widely available wineries at TW thru Saranty and then a btl that came thru conventional channels and compare the two…
but don’t think I’ll bother.
Tom

[Curt_Wood]

Just to be clear here I am a former part time employee of TW a very long tine ago (although it was called a different name in MD). Like most large size companies involved in wine they take their share of slings and arrows here and I am not here to defend them. But they do provide a service to the non-geek average wine buyer. It was mentioned earlier that they sell “commodity wines”. Not sure what that means. Isn’t wine a commodity? Sometimes postings here about TW, WS, BevMo, Whole Foods, Starbucks, small wineries sold to larger wineries etc, is like shooting fish in a barrel for some posters. Not a big deal given the knowledge about all things “rarer” by most posters here but just thought I would put my two cents in.

Cheers,
Curt

[jcoley3]

Just to be clear here I am a former part time employee of TW a very long tine ago (although it was called a different name in MD). Like most large size companies involved in wine they take their share of slings and arrows here and I am not here to defend them. But they do provide a service to the non-geek average wine buyer. It was mentioned earlier that they sell “commodity wines”. Not sure what that means. Isn’t wine a commodity? Sometimes postings here about TW, WS, BevMo, Whole Foods, Starbucks, small wineries sold to larger wineries etc, is like shooting fish in a barrel for some posters. Not a big deal given the knowledge about all things “rarer” by most posters here but just thought I would put my two cents in.

Cheers,
Curt

“I’m not going to defend Total Wines, but here’s my defense of them. Also, a McDonald’s Happy Meal is a way to get nutritious chicken.”

[TomHill]

Just to be clear here I am a former part time employee of TW a very long tine ago (although it was called a different name in MD). Like most large size companies involved in wine they take their share of slings and arrows here and I am not here to defend them. But they do provide a service to the non-geek average wine buyer. It was mentioned earlier that they sell “commodity wines”. Not sure what that means. Isn’t wine a commodity? Sometimes postings here about TW, WS, BevMo, Whole Foods, Starbucks, small wineries sold to larger wineries etc, is like shooting fish in a barrel for some posters. Not a big deal given the knowledge about all things “rarer” by most posters here but just thought I would put my two cents in.
Cheers,
Curt

Well, Curt…by “commodity wines”, I mean wines that are widely available and carried by a lot of grocery stores and the like. Rombauer Chard is a “commodity wine”.
Failla Chard, though a “commodity”, is not what I’d call a “commodity wine”.
When TotalWines opened in SantaFe, there seemed to be a big buzz about its opening. I’d only been in a TotalWine once before, down in Albq, and was
rather overwhelmed w/ all the labels I didn’t recognize. So I was rather excited to have it open as well…some new wines for me to try, especially the imports.
But as I’ve worked my way thru some 20-25 wines, most “Winery Direct” imports, mostly from SarantyImports, I’ve been pretty underwhelmed.
So TW is not for me, and for most folks here on WB. But I’ll continue to stop in if I’m out there in the neighborhood, to see what they have.
And will probably continue to bottom-feed…and probably continue to be disappointed.
Tom

[Curt_Wood]

Understand what you are saying and probably agree with most of it. When I was employed there they had few WD wines and there was not a lot of pressure to sell them. They did try to keep employees up on the tasting of the WD wines by holding wine dinners (free) and in store tastings with upper managers to get the wine people to taste and recommend them. They took full time people to Europe and California to visit the various WD wineries. Their biggest problem with wine people was the low wages they paid. Stock people were minimum wage and wine associates rarely made above $10.00 per hour when I worked there. This must have changed over the years. When I was there they had a couple of stores in N.J., one in Delaware, two in MD, and around five in VA. They continued to grow while i was there but I left so long ago I am fuzzy on their growth. Just stuff for your info.

Cheers,
Curt