Archive for the ‘Retail’ Category
The Thing Is, They Thought They Were Buying Wine With a Little Food Thrown In
January 10th, 2011 by Tom Johnson
Since 2008, London feedbag Marks & Spencer has offered a £10 Dine-In For Two special consisting of a main course, side dish, desert and an inexpensive bottle of wine. It was a big hit. Recently, M&S experimented with a variation on the theme: better food but no bottle. Yeah, well: One shopper said: ‘I saw [...]
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Wine Distributors Get a Big New Customer
June 3rd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Walgreens is adding wine to its stores. How much money is at stake? They’re going to dedicate 2% of their shelf space to wine, and estimate that wine will become “in the low single digits” as a percentage of revenue. Last year, Walgreens took in $63.3 billion. That means that Walgreens is going to sell something [...]
Tags: Retail, wine
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And When We’re Done With This, I Think We Should Decrease the Number of Celebrities By, Say, 35%
January 21st, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Elizabeth Schneider at Wine for Normal People thinks there are too many wine brands. I mean, I’m woman enough to say that even with knowing a thing or two about wine, I still enter wine stores and sometimes feel overwhelmed by the selection. I can’t imagine how intimidating it is for someone just getting into [...]
Tags: Retail, wine
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
December 28th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
Mail-in rebates on wine. So far: Louis M Martini, Frei Brothers, William Hill, Ghost Pines Vineyard, Whitehaven, Maso Canali, MacMurry Ranch, Rancho Zabaco, Martin Codax, Bridlewood Estate, Don Miguel Gascon, Alamos and DaVinci. Others, according to industry sources, are headed to a retail outlet near you. The marketers offering the rebates are betting that you’re [...]
Tags: Marketing, Retail
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Dumping Inventory: How It Works
December 9th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The owner of a serious wine store explains the deals that are coming across his desk. He’s been in the wine business a long time and he’s never seen anything like it. For wine buyers, this is a golden age. The example he gives is Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet, but he’s seeing the same things [...]
Tags: deals, Retail, wine
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Store Wars
October 13th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The City of St. Matthews is in a pickle: …it has to decide whether to allow one of its most prominent retail corners to become a liquor store even if it has a statute that doesn’t allow it. At tonight’s City Council meeting, the owner of the Beverage Warehouse, located just across the street, will [...]
Tags: Regulation, Retail, wine
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Or You Could Stop By In Person
September 14th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
John at the Wine Rack shows off his new — well, it was new a couple of months ago — location.
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Kentucky Hasn’t Changed As Much As You Think
June 3rd, 2009 by Tom Johnson
For an awful lot of the world, the image of Kentucky is the image of a hillbilly sitting on the front porch of a shack, squirrel rifle across his lap. It is an image of ignorance, isolation and closed-minded hostility that the state and its residents have been fighting for decades. And its an image [...]
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New and Improved
May 18th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The Wine Market, 1200 Bardstown Road, has re-opened after massive renovation. The building has been completely rehabbed. What was once a cooler with a small selection of cheese is now a complete cheese market. The wine selection is larger. The new design is more open and inviting. Pictures this afternoon.
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Informal Tasting: Springtime In Italy
April 9th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
Gemelli Wine + Spirits is one of those stores that regularly opens bottles for shoppers to sample. Today and tomorrow, wines for complimentary tasting will be from northeast Italy’s Alto Adige region. Wines from Alto Adige (“amidst the mountains”) are grown in terraced vineyards on the foothills of the Alps, an area as often part [...]
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