Ernest Gallo Dies

Bummer, and I loved his Thunderbird.

He and his brother were giants, it is a sad day. DAve

Young Martle wrote:

A few years ago, a friend who owned a wine and liquor shop on Long Island was held at gunpoint by a Gallo sales representative because he had threatened to remove all the Gallo wines from his shelves. Interesting business style.

Very aggressive sales force--right ahead of Paterno & Parliment. I had an appointment at a small store with new ownership---owners were middle aged whisky drinkers---they told me Gallo Team showed up unannounced

20 minutes ago and started re-arranging shelves---big beefy guy was area manager about 45 yo. Young salesman shorthair wearing 3 piece suit on a summers day. Guy in jeans was building display--which dominated front aisle---owners had wine by varietals, Gallo did it by company with smaller wineries on main floor & "jug wines" in back and on upper shelves---I was 3rd in queue---guy after me worked for Gallo's wholesaler in Fine Wine division--he approached the big guy and quietly complained about where his stuff was moved and also mentioned another hour or two wait--area manager looking at owner-shook his head & said hey bob we're finished when we're finished--without us you'd still be tending bar. Young salesperson was approaching customers and taking them over to Gallo--A yuppie who wanted some Lustau sherry--ended up buying some Gallo instead---I finally left as the midprice Beringer display was dismantled. Owner told me later Gallo team gave him a quota. No quota--display would go. I was told the Gallo people had "reformed" but they still "owned" the mom & pops.

in article DuCdnSjeYYOvPW7YnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com, Joe "Beppe"Rosenberg at snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net wrote on 3/10/07 10:21 PM:

Interesting story, Joe. If any of my suppliers tried to do anything close to that I think the baseball bat would come out from under the counter very quickly. These days, or at least here in SoCal, the worst you get as a small Mom & Pop is being told you need to buy 3 cases of x to get y, or that you can't get so-and-so's Chardonnay unless you buy their Cab and Zin for two years, them MAYBE you'll get a case of Chard. There are benefits that come form there being 3,500 wineries in California alone...... a very large % of which are independent and make some pretty darned good wine.

Does not sound "nice". I think ... I don't like. Of course, that could never happen in Sweden :) Cheers Nils Gustaf

"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" skrev i melding news:vvPIh.36211$ snipped-for-privacy@newsb.telia.net...

Uh, Oh..., wasn't there a scandal last year of shop managers accepting gifts for promoting certain brands? :-) Anders

He's gonna take a dirt nap....