In article >,
Bill Loftin > wrote:

> gerald wrote:
> > I live in DC area, which is the birthplace of Total Beverage(herbie
> > hanf and dart drug).
> > any store that big has a few mistakes. very few now a days.
> > most name brand wines(high end burgandy or boredeau) are the crummy
> > vintage.
> > most staff is new and does not know a lot about wine.
> > prices are pure cost + 50%(std markup).
> > almost all sales are on mystery wines.
> > On Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:49:34 -0800, AxisOfBeagles >
> > wrote:
>
> Actually the company is from New Jersey. They bought Herbert Haft's 5
> Total Wine stores in Northern Virginia at least 5 years after they
> were operating two stores in Maryland and more to the north. They
> did have some very knowledgeable people working in their stores but
> there is no doubt that they had a lot of people that were fairly
> new to wine pushing stuff they had never tasted. Most of the people
> in this group would go into a warehouse to 'buy' rather than wanting
> someone to 'sell' to them.
> I found over the years that they stock a lot of different Chards
> and Shiraz but are light on Zin, Cab and Italian. You will never
> find the new hot wine there. Very conservative buyers that are using
> last year's catalog.

We have them here in Virginia Beach and I have been totally unimpressed
with their stock or sales people.