Was offered a job today........

Still growing in my view, if you are in the United States. If you are in Canada, I understand they have 6000+ of these shops, so not sure if that is a peak or not. but they are hard to find here in North Carolina (closest one I found was in Ohio).

my little view of the world, DAve

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

This one is the third in my city of 45,000. A lot of wine is being sold here in the booze shops and in the other two on premise stores.

I run a small BOP in a small BC city. Our sales are still growing after 5 years in business.

I'm guessing that you are in Canada. Your population base may be able to support three stores. It may depend on location & marketing. Also on quality of product. Winexpert is excellent product.

OTOH, I understand that sales in this industry are currently stagnant. I have heard that some stores are facing slipping sales.

Steve

Lots of stores here in Winnipeg, Canada. It seems that many have banded together to become a small franchise. I think that wine shops here are under promoted. Basically you have to want to make wine on your own and then visit the store. The stores don't seem to do anything to draw in new customers, ie wine tastings, classes, etc.

In my opinion the franchise type stores that are clean and convenient are the stores I avoid. They all offer the same limited supply with very little new and exciting. The proprietors also seem more like hired hands than knowledgeable wine makers.

The smaller "mom and pop" type places are crowded, harder to get to and generally disorganized. I like em. These are the places that have a few kit wines to sample and have a varied and constantly changing selection of goods. I visited one yesterday That had a huge selections of wine kits plus more additives than I'd know what to do with. Plus they had some fine looking beer kits including what looked like a selection of locally made microbrew style kits. Also they had barrels or hops and grains for you to brew up your own beer. And just for kicks, at the back of the store, was a sizeable game shop selling everything from ping pong tables to dungeons and dragons type goods. It sure beats a wall full of one brand of wine kit.

Finally. I try to shop at stores that offer a service too. Rental equipment is a must and some offer bottle cleaning, CO2 tank rentals, etc. Good advice is also very important to me.

Andrew

BUMP...........

OK....started "training" for the job today. I was a bit suprised by the amount of Oak that goes into the kits these days. Most reds take 2 pkgs. of oak. ...and one white kit took 2 pkgs. as well. How long has this been the norm? It's been a year or more since I've done a kit and I've never seen one that took this much oak. Blame the Aussies shall we?........beyond that, the job looks to be sweet.

Depends what brand, and what style. And yes the Aussie styles are often higher.

Spagnols seems to be using more oak than Vineco, and I don't have recent experience with other brands.

Steve

I did a kit up today that had 4 bags of oak. In my opinion that is a lot. However it must work for some people.