Everyone's Getting into the Wine Business

The wine retail landscape continues to evolve all around us. Just this month, Amazon, the online giant, recently got out of the wine business (again) due to the variety of legal regulations surrounding interstate wine shipments. And as that happened,Twitter, yes, that Twitter, decided to sell their own branded wine from which the proceeds will benefit the Room to Read non profit. And then 7-11, the large chain of convenience stores, made news when they announced a proprietary wine under the Yosemite Road label to retail for $3.99 to tap into the growing market for wines under $5.00. These retailers are offering their wines to a a very broad, massmarket audience and, as you can probably guess, the wines they offer aren't claimed to be the best or of much variety.

As daunting as this might be for retailers, if you've read my past blogs, you know I am excited by these non-traditional retailers offering wine to the mass market. A mass market wine consumer is more likely to become a wine lover than a consumer that never experiements with wine at all.

It sounds obvious, but the demographic scope of wine drinkers is changing and growing thanks in part to these non-traditional retailers who are able to reach a new population who haven’t taken the time to choose a bottle of wine from their local wine retailer or grocery store. But for many of these people, that first bottle they pick up offhand at the convenience store piques an interest – they began to explore and experiment with different labels, varietals, vintages, and so on.

That’s the basic process of becoming a wine lover and the reason why your retail stores have such a diverse group of people buying wine. Everyone from the discerning connoisseur to the person pairing wine with their dinner for the first time can benefit from a guide through the endless varieties of wine. Wine retailers that provide good variety, good value, interesting information, teaching tools/merchandise, and a friendly/inviting atmosphere are the ones that will benefit most from the changing landscape. Even if the 7-11’s of the world sell lots and lots of their $3.99 wine, they won't ever want to or be able to compete with you in providing wine to those more adventurous and discerning customers. And that is why variety, good prices, and constant education of yourself and your consumer is key to your success.

Cheers!