Total Wine growler fills.

I go for selection, definitely not because of price. IMO craft beer isn't a price driven market, it's quality.

 

I'd love them more if I didn't have to be one who fills them.

 

The only time I would consider their growler fills a deal is when it's something that normally is in large format packaging. The closest TW to me right now has 3 offerings that are priced the same or $1 cheaper for a 64 oz compared to the 6 pack pricing. The other beer is $13 for 32 oz. of what is normally $16 for 22 oz.

There was a thread recently in which a small MD craft store owner talked about growler pricing vs. packaged pricing. For the most part, if you can get in in a 6/4 pack, it's almost always cheaper that way.

 

State Line in Md has this for that price quite often. I have thought about buying a 64 oz growler for 20 and bottling up most of it. Has anybody done this and had success. I of course worry about the carbonation.

 

I was surprised one day when upon arriving at TW that not only did they have a growler filling station, but they had On The Wings of Armageddon on tap. Can't recall exactly what the 32 oz. fill was but including growler I don't feel like I went north of $8. I have since thrown a couple clean 32 and 64 growlers in the trunk for "emergencies" but otherwise, I keep an eye on their board when I go in just in case they get any more hard to find items on tap. All in all, I 'm glad they have the system now. Just another opportunity to get hold of awesome beers.

 

I work there.

 

I have bought several growlers there this year and was happy to do so. They had Alpine a few times, the Abyss, and Hanger 24 Pugachev's Cobra all great beers that are not easily found in bottle format in Nevada.

 

The TW in Greenville, is generally about $1-2 dollars cheaper than most place in town

 

I know you work there, and I'm not posting this to be a rebel rouser, nor am I pissed off about it anymore, but simply to voice my only experiences with your store's fill station...

When their growler station first opened, I had problems with employees not filling my growlers to the proper fill line a few times. I had some moron fill it less than 3/4 of the way and hand it to me. I asked him to fill it to the 64 oz mark on the growler, but he claimed it would cost more than the advertised 64 oz fill price. I even talked to the manager at the time and he didn't see anything wrong with the short pour. I told them I didn't want it if it wasn't full and they needed to just pour it out, and they told me that I had to buy it anyway because they had already poured it...the manager even told me if I walked out without paying that they would alert the cop outside that I was shoplifting. I was strong armed into buying the damn fill and haven't used their fill station ever again. My wife tried to surprise me with a growler fill another time from there since I refused to go back and they did it to her too...she was in tears with her experience when she got home with it. I called and raised hell for how they treated her and the manager was kind enough to make it all better with a 10% off discount on my next growler fill...RIDICULOUS!!! That was the last straw for me and Greenville's TW growler station!

I'd like to hope/assume they've got this fixed by now, but I just walk right by the fill station if I'm ever in there and just grab a selection of bottles instead.

 

There's a link where you can see "What's on Tap" at any time at any TW location across the country. Some locations will also list "What's on Deck" so you know what will be tapped after the current lines kick. It shows you exactly what is available along with pricing of the fill (16 or 32). I have never filled from a TW but the prices seem fair for being retail most of the time. http://totalwine.securedev.co/growler/

 

The ABC in Jacksonville, FL added a growler station last year. Getting kegs of good beer and 32 oz fills were for a good price, I thought. I believe more retail shops are getting into the growler stations. A good move imo.

 

I, too, keep a couple of clean 32oz bottles in my vehicles. Never know what I will find, and many will fill if appropriate "legalese" is on the container.

 

Wow......I'm sorry to hear that, man. We have never done anything like that at our store. I always give people the best fill that I possibly can. Of course we've had some techinal issues before (where naturally the customer was properly compensated) but hearing about something like this is just ridiculous.

 

Sorry you had bad expereriences, there's no excuse for that...if you're ever there on a Thursday evening or Saturday, stop by and say hello...if you bring in your growler, I'll personally fill it for you

 

Greenville is not the most current city for craft beer, so I chalked it up to locals just being clueless and not filled in with proper filing techniques when it was first opened. As mentioned, I can't imagine this ineptitude is still going on, but being burned twice, I have no intention of giving their fill station another try.

 

Speaking with my Total Wine hat on here. You mention your issue was when the growler station first opened (South Carolina was TW's first state to install growlers -- this goes back 3-4 years). It was a regular beer tap system back then. Today the stores have the CO2 counter-pressure Pegas growler filling systems, which weren't available at that time. On the "old" regular taps there were issues with excessive beer foam when filling growler bottles, which may have contributed to the fill issue you experienced (making an assumption, as I wasn't there). With the Pegas system, there are no foaming beer issues.

A couple thoughts:

a) When situations arise such as this at any company, wherein you do not get a satisfactory response at the store level, I'd encourage you to contact that company's Customer Care (outside of the store management), which is usually accessible online and via a toll free phone call. They are there to do whatever they can to make it right.

b) I think most on this forum would encourage you to give it another go. That was many years ago, and I think most would agree that if that were a systemic issue in that store that persisted across customers, that location would have been out of the growler business long ago.

Thanks for sharing.

Rob

 

This was definitely not from excess foam, just straight up short pours.

Being big into homebrewing, i usually just fill my own growlers off of one of my kegs nowadays and rarely fill a growler out anymore unless it's at a brewery. Total Wine is also located off of the local "purgatory road" where you sit in your car and wait to get to the store longer than it takes you to get in and out of the store, definitely a discouragement as well since I already live almost an hour away. I always have a growler or twelve in the car and will think about giving them a try next time I'm out that way.

I'd definitely like to say thanks for those employees that posted here on this forum to try to do a little damage control for TW...y'all gave more effort than the manager at the time, and its appreciated! Its good to know douchebaggery is not a standard for TW and many of their employees care about beer as much as I do!