Costco, Liquor Board, & More Important Things To Think About
Man, did I get letters for this one.
Costco’s Liquor Board Suit Could Help Small Wine Shops
(if they let it)
Just remember one of the most overused proverbs, The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
See the ball, people. The state is the bad guy in this. And, yes, Costco is one of the good guys. But I’ve already spoken of this. You can disagree if you like. If you like to be wrong.
tags: costco, seattle weekly
June 4th, 2007 at 6:47 am
Hi all!
phentermine http://phentermine-hf6f8d.blogspot.com/
G’night
June 4th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I’ve been up and down and sideways on this issue for some time. The final clincher for me was the Al Capone-esk attitude of the bigger houses in the current distribution cartel… one in particular that stated on their way out the door… “you guys are not even on our radar. Unless you support the brand, you don’t get the good stuff. And by the way, these mom and pop wineries you stock better get in line too or they’ll be out of business.” I won’t mention the distributor in question but we have found more than one instance of this same message. Excuse me, but isn’t the quest to get the best, the most bodacious, the best value to the consumer? I guess not. I still am wary of Costco though. I still hear “The Who” cranking, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” But I’m ready for a regime change. I think our little wine shop will benefit. Go Coscto and whoever their lawyers are!
June 24th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Maybe the one aspect that gets overlooked here is the ability for the small distributors to compete with the big companies on a level playing field. The small companies work on very strict margins, as you probably know, in order to stay somewhat profitable. The larger companies have a vast pool of resources with large importers and consequently, large coffers of money behind them making the quantity discounts easier to absorb. I think there is a fear that this could be the demise of the small distributor in our area and a tendency toward homogeneity in the marketplace. My worst fear here is that the more esoteric and truly interesting labels would be taken on by these larger companies whose salestrons are typically (not always) unmotivated by the intrinsic value and beauty in a wine, or its place of origin, as much as they are in making money by selling huge quantities of wine they know nothing about. I’ve seen it before when really great brands get absorbed by a larger portfolio or distributor only to disappear from the market because these large companies either cannot manage their massive catalogs of wine properly or cannot educate their sales staff in the manner necessary to bring these wines to the consumer that might actually be looking for them.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
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