On Jan 27, 2:38�pm, Wine For Newbies >
wrote:
> On Jan 27, 2:33 pm, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
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> > On Jan 27, 1:18 pm, Wine For Newbies >
> > wrote:
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> > > My dream is to open a wine store (wine only, not a generic liquor
> > > store) at some point in the future.
> > > I would like to know if there are store owners in the group who would
> > > like to share their experiences.
> > > Was it worth it opening the store? Is it still worth it? Pitfalls? How
> > > to get figure out the numbers for a business plan? Any information is
> > > helpful.
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> > From a customer's viewpoint, I would strongly encourage you to include
> > a few quality beverages that may be served before, with, or after a
> > meal. Depending on what country you are in, these might include
> > Cognac, Armagnc, fruit eau-de-vie such as Framboise, perhaps a few
> > quality liquors. In other words, I would suggest a one-stop for buying
> > what you need for a dinner. If customers are forced to go to another
> > store to buy Cognac, etc they need for a meal, they may find it more
> > convenient to buy their wine at the other store also.
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> That makes sense. I just don't want to fall into opening a liquor
> store that looks cheap.
> Thank you,
>
> Andrehttp://www.winefornewbies.com/- Hide quoted text -
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> - Show quoted text -

It would help to know where you are located. With direct shipping and
easy internet access we're seeing a change in the retail wine store
business. As a distributor we noted a 14% decrease in sales to retail
outlets in 2007 in revenue but a small increase in volume and analysis
of those numbers showed an increase in sales of moderately priced
French, Italian and German wines and a decrease in sales of domestic
value wines. We also noted that 14 retail wine stores closed in Ohio
and Kentucky in 2007. I personally knew four of those store owners
and all of them closed due to downward margin pressure from larger
players and internet sales and increased overhead. The bottom line is
that high end, allocated wines are not making it into the hands of the
small retailer and it's hard to make a living selling wines priced at
under $20 bottle by bottle. Low end wines require large volumes and
it's hard to compete against WHole Foods, Costco, etc in that market
given the advertising budget and marketing power of the larger
players.