A couple of weeks ago, I created a poll which attempted to gauge your perception of what a fair or reasonable restaurant price markup should be.
Because the answers were stated in terms of relative percentages, several of you pointed out that they lent to confusion. In other words, does 200% percent mean that an $8 wine should sell for $16 or $24?
To avoid this problem, I have created a new poll in which the possible answers are in *absolute* price terms.
Please take a look at and vote in the poll, which is located at
formatting link
(the poll's text follows below)
Restaurant Wine Markup Poll
The purpose of this poll is to estimate what wine consumers consider to be a fair or reasonable markup price for wine at restaurants.
The question is not whether a restaurant should be able to charge, in a legal or regulatory sense, whatever it pleases for the products it sells. We assume that those of you taking this poll live in quasi-free-market economies, so the premise is that the price should be whatever the restaurant wants.
The inquiry here is more personal; it focuses on your subjective perspective as a wine consumer. So, please take the time to think about and answer the question that follows:
What is the *maximum* restaurant price that you consider reasonable or fair for a bottle of wine that sells at retail for $10?
$10 $15 $20 $25 $30 $35 $40 $45 $50
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Leo Bueno wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
OH but wouldn't it be nice to be able to drink affordably in an American Restaurant? It remends me ofthe companion thread. Yes I would love a boxed wine that was half decent and priced well. There is no joy in overpaying for anything and restaurant wine is one reason that my wife and I love to dine at home for a fraction of the price. Our typical Saturday night dinner would cost over $150 at a restaurant, we don't even come close to that.
On most nights of the week, we open wine that might be about $40 at a restaurant. On weekends we probably open up wine that would be over $500 at restaurants.
I rarely order great wines at restaurants since I cellar wine at home. Often I will bring my own wine if the restaurant is special for food but not wine.
Example where I live "The Palm" is a nice steak house. But even the captains list is mostly allocated wines of last months releases. Nothing aged. So I might bring a bottle of 87 Montelena from my cellar...which cost about $15-20 for the Estate Bottled Cabernet---and then pay their corkage fee if its applicable. They mostly waive our corkage there.
I don't mind paying for wine...I despise drinking cult wines early. That is what I don't enjoy.
Hmm... Is Fred Franzia a winemaker? Perhaps, but his major claim to fame these days is as a wine marketer. Still, his point is a good one, and one which has been much lamented here. I'd be interested to get Tom Schellberg's views on the economics of restaurant wine pricing, as it does seem to me that restaurants might very well make more money selling 3x quantities of a $10 wine rather than pricing that same wine at $18 and losing sales. Historically, restaurant wine pricing in the US has been higher than in France and Italy because of the lower domestic production levels and the perceived "elite" status of wine drinkers. Now, as production levels of fine wine climb in the US, could we not begin to see the production of everyday wines that do retail for low price?
I am not familiar with Ritchie Creek. Tell me about it.
I am fortunate to say I have been a cellar master of Montelena for years. They have a great futures program that creates customer loyalty. The 1997 that released at about $120 bottle I had on futures for under $50.00. Only
1996 was a dissapointment in the 90's and it was still good.
In retailing the word mark-up means the profit, not the cost plus the profit. A 2x mark-up ($20) means the consumer is going to pay the cost $10, plus the mark-up $20, for a total of $30. I'm sorry if this phrase was misunderstood. The problem I face is the food is good and known for that. The wine and beer is not so good, and known for that too, or so it would seem. They don't sell hard liquor, as I belive there's even greater costs, and they don't want to be that kind of place. My plan is to put some acceptable products into the inventory, then slowly drop or reduce the really low end wines served now. Once that absolute bottom of the line is gone, the "house" bottom of the line can be a fair product, and on the winelist by New Year's I'd love to see something impressive. The current owner's invoices reflect the cost of wine to be more or less retail, due to the low volume, as the invoices all tend to have an item marked "small purchase surcharge" on them. I'd sure like to see the "small purchase surcharge" go away...
Posted By: simone diament
Posted On: 15 hr, 32 min. Views: 19 Restaurant Wine Mark Up
If the cafe that Peter is planning to buy serves 150 lunches and 350 dinners, and only 20 liters of wine per week, I strongly suggest that, instead of raising the cost of wine in his wine list to cover the insurance cost (which he has to pay anyway), to sell alongside finer wines more wines in the $16 to $20 bracket (like for instance the wines we talk about in our "Cheap Great Wines Under $10" column in SouthFloridaGourmet.com. There is a healthy Profit to be made there without dipping deep into his customers'pocket. He should consider starting a wine-by-the-glass program to encourage people to try different wines. The result will be happier customers who will return more often to his cafe... eat more food, order more wine, drink more coffee, etc... A Win-Win situation.
Posted By: Leo
Posted On: 18 hr, 57 min. Views: 27 A fair mark-up (response to Peter)
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