Secrets of selling wine

Store Equipment & Design, May, 2000 by Monica Buckley

As American wine sales increase, supermarkets gain expertise in buying, merchandising and selling high-end wines.

While Western Europeans have for centuries treated wine as a crucial part of meals, American appreciation for the ancient drink is just starting to gather momentum. According to the Wine Institute, retail value of U.S. wine sales in 1998 was $17 billion. Preliminary figures for 1999 indicate sales of $20 billion, a gain of more than 17 percent.

Because good food and wine are supermarkets are well suited to take advantage of this trend. Wine enhances sales per basket and complements adjacent prepared food, deli and bakery departments. But creating a successful wine department involves more than putting bottles on the shelf.

Wine-buying customers want good choices and need information about complementary foods, vineyards, viticulture and vintage; thus, much depends on knowledgeable staff. When John Zagara of Specialty & Natural Foods (owned by Genuardi's Family Markets, Norristown, Pa.) opened a new wine department in Mount Laurel, NJ., two months ago, he interviewed 30 people to hire three. "It's not just about selling high-margin items," he says, "it's about educating people, too:"

Zagara's department (see cover photo) features a central wine desk staffed by a wine steward who can address questions and encourage customers to try new wines. "Most people who buy wine," Zagara says, "really yearn for knowledge."

John Sutti, president of Sutti Associates, designers of upscale markets in the San Francisco Bay area, agrees. "You can't sell better wines without a person who spends a lot of time and energy educating themselves about wine and food," he says. "Wine sales can be drastically increased if you set in place a program to educate the customer as to which wines go with which foods."

Signage is another important component of educating customers and expanding their wine choices. Customers confronted with a wall of bottles want signs that tell a story for each choice. Kenner Swain, wine manager of for each Co-Op Markets, says he "writes a lot" for his customers. He doesn't have time to give details on every selection, he adds, but in some cases he'll copy articles on wine regions or other information, and he allows "a certain amount of the brightly colored POS signs" in the department.

Most retailers favor descriptive signs prepared by hand. This not only fosters informed choices, but also increases the customer's sense that the store's collection is personally tasted and tended--as it should be, Swain points out: "You have to take the space in your department seriously and taste each wine to make sure it is worthy of that space." A good wine department must become a brand in itself, he explains, where customers have confidence in the selection.

CREATING AMBIANCE

High-end wine customers look for a certain atmosphere. Bellingham, Wash.-based Brown & Cole has had wine departments for 14 years; says wine category manager Chuck Beebe, "You have to create a wine-store feel, with a wine steward there [ldots] a kind of store-within-a-store."

Beebe sets his departments off, sometimes in alcoves. "I use chrome Metro- or Eagle-style wire shelving because it looks classy," he says, adding that the 12- or 18-inch shelving also allows for greater variety with less inventory.

"There can't be a lot of people with carts knocking you down," advises Sutti. Serious wine buying requires quiet time to consider, and finding space for this in a supermarket can be tricky. The wine department at the Mustard Seed Market in Solon, Ohio, is adjacent to the scratch bakery and prepared foods area, which on a busy day is "a four-lane highway," owner Phil Nabors says. A separate entrance to the area allows customers to buy an entire meal with wine, pay for it and go. But the wine fixturing had to be built so people could step out of the fray, Nabors says. The U-shaped, cherry-stained wood fixture imparts a warm feeling, its curved endcaps inviting shoppers into the area, which has taller cases around its periphery and middle cases short enough to see over. "We wanted to slow people down, make them feel safe and have time to contemplate their decision." Nabors says.

At an Andronicos Market in Danville, Calif., a dramatically lit, double-wide aisle spans the depth of the center of the store and is visible from the checkouts. Called the "Wine Hall," the room is lined with wood shelving; a curved bar toward the back is wide enough that customers at a tasting can sample food comfortably as Sinatra plays in the background.

A special feature of Andronico's an intimate little room where low lighting and temperature under 60 degrees impart a cellar like feeling, and the walls are lined with bottles lying on their sides to preserve the corks. A security camera is among the rigging for this room, which holds bottles priced up to $400, as well as what Bill Andronico calls "a great little assortment" of 750-millileter and magnum-sized wines.

Stacking wine high creates drama, literally surrounding the shopper with wines. department, with 14-foot-high wood shelving from Kason Market Products, Franklin Park, Ill., is accompanied by rolling library ladders. The ladders can also be found along the wood wall units at Byerly's new wine department in Maple Grove, Minn., where, says vice president of real estate John Pazahanick, they lend "a serious wine-store feel" while allowing a down-sizing of backroom storage, because backstock is kept on the higher shelves. The central shelves from Lozier, Omaha, Neb., are also higher than standard grocery gondolas, he says, increasing up-front storage all the more.