Total Wine

Which Total Wine?

I was just in the Durham one, and they had EH at 12.99 and 5.99 for Cold Mountain. They werent selling 12 oz bottles individually. They had 12 packs in the cooler right next to the bottle of EH they had chilled waiting for me.

 

Does that TW have a teleporter to the Newport News TW?

 

Because they are what Wal-Mart has been to mom & pops stores! With the Westy fiasco among other things, how long before our favorite LOCAL bottle shops are out of business? Loyal customers is the only reason local bottle shops are still in business! Me, I would rather pay a dollar more to have a better chance at a fresh and rotated selection not to mention if I was to have any questions, have someone who actually knows a stout from an IPA.

To each their own I guess!

 

I guess since they received so little EH they decided to try and cheapen it. Classic swine move.

 

its only $.50 cheaper than another local bottle shop.

 

To a degree I would say you are right but that wasn't the focal point I was trying to make. I'm not gonna beat a dying horse here! I may be in the minority but I think there are alot of benefits in shopping local be it beer or other goods and services. That being said maybe I'm a hypocrite with my out of state ISO postings!

 

We have very few and small shops down my way in FL. I certainly support them, but total wine gets quantity in my area, and often gets more and better seasonals as well. They are honestly a good thing for me, and really filled a gap in the market in my area

 

tend to agree....in my county, about an hour north of orlando, where there are two total wines, the county got 2 cases of hopslam...1 went to a bar that sold it for twice as much as standard price...the 2nd one i could have bought it for same price, but they had to get it priced. total wine in orlando received like 30 cases of hopslam and there was plenty to go around....now i have made connections with a store in my area, and do devote a lot of my money to that store (made friends with the guy that orders beer, give him some of my traded beer, etc), but the realization is total wine gets all the releases the local shops do in florida, and sometimes get releases local shops DO NOT get. so, like the above poster stated, we have no other option but to go to total wine.

 

What's EH?

 

Event Horizon

 

I've had good experiences shopping at Total Wine. I've also had good (even great) experiences shopping at smaller local stores. Sometimes I've done both in the same city, and I feel like there's plenty of room for both.

 

I agree with Marine1975. Total wine is a last resort for me.

 

Ditto. TW&M is walking distance from the house, which makes it easy for a lazy ass like me, but I will go way out of my way and drive to the Beer Exchange and give them my business (A, because they're local, and B, because they are damn good dudes and are passionate about good beer which TW is not).

 

Total Wine seems to be best at getting the best bottom line deals on new releases. However, they tend to go quickly, as they put their beers out front first thing and those bottles get snatched up fairly quickly.

There are several alternative smaller bottle shops, however, that will often set aside a couple cases and release them periodically through the weeks/months after the initial release, which makes the visits there all the more worthwhile and rewarding.

Also, older releases tend to get the bargain basement treatment after their season ends, which is great for winter beers. However, older vintages of a given beer are virtually non-existent at TW's, which smaller bottle shops excel at having.

 

"Total Wine seems to be best at getting the best bottom line deals on new releases."

All retailers pay the same price for beer in North Carolina. TW uses their wine purchasing power to leverage the distributors to their advantage with beer. (Most distributors sell both beer & wine and make a greater profit on wine) TW will often buy in large quantities when beer specials are offered and when the beer goes out of date force the distributor to pick it up for credit. Why do you think TW chose Mutual and Empire to pass through the Westy 12? Because they are huge wine distributors. All distributors complain loudly about TW but are afraid to lose the wine volume.

TW also likes to destroy brands. In the Charlotte market TW will find a hot brand that local botle shops are doing well with and buy into the same items and sell at or below cost just to screw with the independents. (i.e. Lagunitas) TW doesn't really care about beer they just want to dominate the wine business and keep customers out of the local bottle shops where wine is also offered.

How many local brew clubs or festivals are sponsored by TW? Where do you think new brands are built? TW or the local bottle shops? It's easy to give stuff away when you don't really care about it. It's a little bit harder to build brands and educate customers.

It's a choice we all make. I choose to always support local.

Cheers!

Roger Kimbrough

 

Very well written post!

 

As much as I like to support local, I also shop at Total Wine. I work until 6 or 7pm most nights and they're open later than my closest locally owned shop.