Is Wine Nation in Millbury Closed?

There's another thread talking about how they opened a second store in CT and it being a big financial mistake but I'm not sure if it's closed or not.

 

They just recently got a full liquor license for spirits, at times the beer inventory gets a little low.
I'm sure the rent must be high for that space. would'nt be a shock if they did close.

 

There open but beer inventory is low.

 

I spoke with a couple different levels of employees. Basically, they made some major miscalculations before signing the lease for their new store in Norwalk, CT. Due largely to unanticipated costs on that end, there isn't enough capital to run Millbury up to previous standards. They hope to have this resolved within a month.
Until things improve, I strongly suggest only purchasing either beers which would age well on the shelves or things with coherent bottling/freshness dates.

 

Agreed, their 4 and 6 pack shelves are empty enough to double as bunk beds.
Kind of sad, really.

 

The store is so empty I thought I walked into Steve Gutenberg's acting resume post-Police Academy.

 

Heh...thought that your post would be perfect as a 'Family Guy' motif...

I think Winenation's beer aisle would be a PERFECT place for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting...temptation-free.

 

The Norwalk store is just as bad, I was there a week ago and was shocked at how low their inventory was. I don't see how they are going to compete.

 

Saw the same last week in Millbury. Lots of staff, not much 4-pack and 6-packs. BBC in cooler was sparse too. Big ticket singles area seemed pretty stocked currently though.

 

Sad, because there's no discount for mix-a-six, which is what they're trying to do w/ the big ticket singles. At least Julio's has just as many singles, but 15% off any six bottles.

Three bad signs:
1) When the staff outnumber the six packs.
2) When their 'new' branch store (which just opened in Norwalk, what 2 weeks ago??) is low on stock now. Couldn't imagine opening a store less than fully stocked, or if fully stocked, not being ready to replenish the supply to feed the consumer momentum, which will inevitably wane the longer they take to restock. The Millbury location has been low on beer for months now.
3) For the first time in ages, their Winenation website has 'New Arrivals coming soon' or something like that when you click on 'New Arrivals'. (But it's been like this for a couple of months now) They used to have semi-regular flyers in newspapers a couple of years back, but I imagine they switched over to posting sales and new product on their website to save on printing and paper costs..

 

I'm willing to bet 4 bottles of Jabby Brau that the stock making the big ticket area look populous are largely the same as three months ago, right down to the bottles.
Honestly, when I saw the store open in that location my immediate reaction was "yay! Big and useless!" Figured that making the lease would require stocking 99% guaranteed sales in beer (e. g. BMC) and overpricing the remaining 1% severely. They proved me wrong fairly early on and got a decent, fairly robust, ever evolving selection going. It's really a shame that their successes went to their heads and they opened that second store way too soon. Better to have the ambition for a second store overboiling on a back burner than to risk ruin by running both at 1/4 capacity.

 

Jabby Brau is an AWESOME session beer.
Agree with you 100%. Their sales model doesn't guarantee loyalty either. I was initially pleased to see them on the block, as I was trying to seek a more affordable alternative than Julio's...and I like competition, but there were a few things 'off'.
*One was charging $20 bucks for their beer or wine classes. Julio's has many, MANY more tastings of beer, wine, liquor that have all been free.
*I know it's 'WINEnation'...so they have wine tastings every Friday, Sat and Sun...would it have killed them to do a beer tasting once a month maybe? Julio's has 'Hoppy Tuesdays'...again..advantage: Julio's
*Mix-a-six at Winenation: No discount Mix-a-six at Julio's: 15% off. advantage: Julio's
*Website at Winenation->heard they were looking at making it more functional (they mentioned this a year ago)..but the website is getting to be fairly useless other than opening times, phone numbers. Website at Julio's: has a search function to look thru inventory, and a way to sign-up for certain classes online as well. Adv: Julio's
*Alternate net presence for Winenation->None Alternate Net presence for Julio's->Facebook and Twitter to announce releases. (wouldn't it have made sense for Winenation to establish these as a free way to advertise releases? A no-brainer) Advantage: Julio's

Yeesh..now I'm getting resigned that Winenation (unless they turn themselves around, maybe listen to customer input once in a blue moon?) is sinking, and it's sadder that they showed such promise in the early days. I agree that they should have fully focused all capital and resources on making their 1st store a financial and community success before expanding. Have spoken to many friends who were Winenation devotees, but now refuse to go as is now wasting gas$$ to stare at empty beer and liquor shelves.

A wine/liquor/beer store without enough liquor and beer for so many months...is sad.

 

I'm only loyal if there is good selection/prices/service. I got some good stuff at wine nation but like others have already said I'm not going to shop there to get beer I really don't want just to be loyal. Julios is vastly superior and probably always will be around here. Their tasting Tuesday changed to Evil Twin at the last minute and I got to try 9 different beers that I probably wouldn't have had otherwise because most of them were $14.99 for a 12oz bottle.

 

I'm really feeling an urge to put the URL for this thread on a comment card and submit it to management at the store. In the event they do get back on track with stock, they're going to need more than that to rebuild the faith. Getting the infrastructure to support Julio's levels of awesome sauce isn't going to happen overnight. However, maybe announcing the improvements via Facebook and hosting a tasting to show that things are improving.

 

Or copy and paste the URL into an e-mail that can be sent thru their website, as they do list an e-mail contact address....

 

FWIW, I did email the website contact asking if the Millbury store was still open, and got "yes" as a reply. <shrug> Guess the reasoning behind their being closed in evenings and having not hardly any multipacks on the shelves is not our business.

 

Doesn't seem like they are prioritizing 'our business', and that curt reply confirms it. They've certainly lost mine and many more.

 

I've forwarded the link along. We'll see what happens.