This morning at 9:30 am, Tuesday August 19th, the single most emailed story on the New York Times website was not that Obama has decided a running mate, it was not the war in Iraq, it was not the Olympics. Here’s the true measure of the popularity of wine in today’s culture: it was about [...]
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Do you ever catch yourself listening to a conversation (or, in this example, the radio) and something is said that grabs you and sticks in your brain and you can’t shake it out?
On Sunday August 3rd, on Sound Opinions (Sunday nights on The Current … quite possibly the best music show on the radio today), [...]
Filed under: Ideas - Restaurants, Ideas - Retail | Tagged: sound opinions, the current, wine list pricing | Leave a Comment »
(photo: City of Oporto by Flickr member Francisco-PortoNorte)
It’s late June and here in Minnesota the bugs are starting to come out and pretty soon by 3:00 in the afternoon that heat will start to be a bit too much for most people. Or maybe it’s the humidity … that magical invisible meteorological condition [...]
Filed under: Ideas - Restaurants, Ideas - Retail, Portugal | 1 Comment »
We’ve all seen them, and it’s amazing how easy it is to rent one, but I don’t think wine retailers need inflatable gorillas. Maybe an inflatable Pinot Noir stem, or an oversized 1970 Ridge Montebello, but not a gorilla.
However, the idea of drawing in customers sure has appeal. Retailers in Minnesota lament the [...]
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Before diving into this post, take at look at the wine list from The Slanted Door in San Francisco (arguably one of the better restaurants in that great city). They identify their organic and biodynamic selections with nice subtle icons. A moon, a star, etc.
The organic/sustainable/biodynamic issue is hot at the moment, and [...]
Filed under: Ideas - Restaurants, Ideas - Retail | Tagged: Biodynamic, Organic, Sustainable, winelist | Leave a Comment »
“As a wine retailer/winebar/restaurant, do I need a website and how do I make good use of it?”
Before answering the questions, keep in mind I just read a local newspaper article saying that 85% of people who receive the yellow pages never open it and proceed to (illegally) throw it in the garbage. (Recycling [...]
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When the economy takes a downturn (or there’s some economic concern in general) we see a few key patterns emerge in the retail wine sector:
Sales of high end wines tend to go toward the more historical and established names with a reputation for consistent high quality (Montelena, Jordan, Shafer, etc.). Unproven, higher priced new brands [...]
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