Wine & SpiritS Guild
(Standing) tom Druley, Belmont Beverage Stores, Indiana BraD FeuerBacher, Brown Derby Stores, Missouri KeN lewiS, The Party Source, Kentucky
In April, members of the Wine & Spirits Guild gathered for their annual meeting held in northern California.
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(Seated) Burt NotariuS, Prime Wines Corporation, New York BoB SelBy, Kappy’s Fine Wines & Spirits, Massachusetts emmett malloy, SavWay Fine Wines & Spirits, Illinois
adviCe for retailerS froM retailerS
he Wine & Spirits Guild of America, representing independent and chain retailers across the country, has become an important forum for market leaders and business owners to exchange their ideas. Since its creation in 1948, the Guild has grown to represent more than 500 stores which accumulate over $2 billion in sales annually. This year at its annual meeting, The Beverage Network, with the cooperation of the group’s current president, Bob Selby, had the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of members about some key issues concerning retailers today. Here are some highlights from the discussion:
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CoSt SavinG MeaSureS in ChallenGinG tiMeS
of what • BoB SelBy: A lot basic, butwe are doing about cost savings is you think about it more in times like these. We are careful to make sure that we have the right people working at the right times and we pay more attention to overtime pay. We also focus more on the heating and air conditioning. One example is our system of taking outside air into our refrigeration units during the winter. It’s extremely efficient and it has saved us a lot of money.
emmett malloy: Three months ago we removed all our old florescent lighting fixtures in two stores and replaced them with new state-ofthe-art energy saving fixtures. Prior to this, one of the store’s electric bills ran at about $5,000 a month, now it is down $900. It was a big cost initially, but our payout will come in two years.
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NotariuS: • Burttaken a careful We have look at our promotional investments. For instance, we’ve eliminated newspaper advertising because it wasn’t effective. We’ve turned that money from newspapers around and we’ve put it into television. The overall effect is that business is still strong and we were able to reduce our advertising budget by 20%. We have also focused on reaching our custom-
ers through emails. We created something called ‘Premium Wine Weekends’. Monday through Wednesday we email sale messages to our customers. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we send messages to people to come in and taste wine. By using different media outlets and forms of advertising we have been able to reach different markets. tom Druley: We’ve changed most of our analogue surveillance camera systems into digital color. Not only does this observe customer traffic and employee habits, it also tells us which displays are working better. It has a merchandising aspect and has been a worthwhile expense. BraD FeuerBacher: We have focused on our hours of operation. We are open 365 days a year from 8am to midnight. We thought we could adjust our operating hours and get the same volume of sales, so we changed to opening at 9am. This eliminated overtime entirely. In addition to the OT labor savings, the change also helped our customer service. Management, who previously left at 4pm, now leaves at 5pm, and are able to spend more time with customers.
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timidating. Often people ask us how they can get into wine. In response to that we are creating a wine appreciation center. We are going to offer free classes that will be led by our wine knowledgeable staff. This will bring them into a less intimidating environment to learn about wine, and give us an opportunity to get to know our customers and what they are drinking. KeN lewiS: About six or eight months ago we saw that there was going to be a downturn coming. We’re fortunate to have a large number of long-term career people on our staff and we felt comfortable sitting them down and explaining our situation. By talking with them we were able to calm their fears and create a more relaxed and positive workplace, which in turn has led to better customer service.
because we are in tune with our customers and we work closely with them. They are also interested in the products that are localized, and those are the products we are carrying.
SupplierS helpinG retailerS Build BrandS
Fe u e r Bach e r: I enjoy when suppliers ask questions about our business, and when they launch new products. They need to know how their products can fit in and then what might need to go out to make room for it. We just don’t have room for all the new brands and flavors that come out each year and obviously certain brands are more important to suppliers than others. needs to be points of dif• lewiS: There is this product beneficial? ferentiation. Why Why does it represent your consumer? How does it represent value? many • Druley: Toonum- people are coming in and giving us bers as to how their products are selling nationally, but not locally. The smart ones come in and show us how they are selling where we are. Our liquor buyer says that he likes to choose one or two products in January and really go after it all year long. This focus has proven to be a huge success. SelBy: I think the wholesalers and the suppliers need to realize how important the independent retailer is to their whole business and future. The chain and club stores will take the top 10 SKUs and they’ll give them away. When it comes to introducing new products and building brands they have to come to us. It’s important for them that we exist and continue successfully, because if we don’t and there are only the chains left, then they are not going to be able keep the same level of business. n
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ShiftinG CuStoMer BuyinG trendS
GivinG CuStoMerS Better ServiCe and inCreaSed added value
SelBy: Customer service is something we stress a great deal in these hard times. Our competition is the club store and the grocery store, so customer service is the biggest advantage we have. We have people on the floor and we insist that they engage the customers as much as possible because that’s simply something they don’t get at the larger stores. NotariuS: In the end, your best advertising is satisfied customers, because they become the advocates of your business. Satisfied customers are the ones that are going to return, not because of a sale, but because they like the place and the experience that they have there. We have also seen the importance of an educated customer. Wine is a complicated subject and it can be in-
• NotariuS: It’s extremely important to listen to your customers and to hear their
concerns. What we’re seeing is individuals looking for value. That may mean they are looking for something under $10, $20 or $30. Those items need to become a priority no matter what their price. It’s important to reposition your store so that you’re focusing on the products that really over-deliver for the price. impacted • malloy: I think everyone islike a cusby this economic problem. It’s tomer’s conscience bothers him if he spends money like he used to, so he trades down. He is still spending about the same amount, but instead of buying a $30 Cabernet he goes down to a $25 bottle. You also have more and more women doing the buying. We have put energy into feminizing our stores and adding touches that make them more comfortable. There is a trend the U.S. • lewiS: toward localizationinand reconright now necting with local retailers and local food products. That works for retailers
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