Moving forward
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Despite stumbling somewhat over the last few weeks, I am moving forward again with Project Wine Shop. After much consideration, and a disappointingly small amount of feedback from my fellow wine professionals (with the notable exception of Kimberly in St. Helena), I have decided on a final wine list and will be presenting it to Leroy and Kerry later today. In addition, I will propose a seven step plan to create a small wine shop within the confines of their general store and grow their wine business by between 100% and 200% over the next two years.

If Leroy and Kerry decide to pursue the proposal, the new wine shop will provide an enhanced shopping experience with a better selection, clear labeling, wine and food pairing suggestions, a 'Wine of the Month' program, and a 'Special Order' option to promote the fact that customers can order their favorite wines and have them in their hands in a couple of days, a fact many customers seem unaware of.

It is my hope that we will be able to 'launch' the new wine shop in four to six weeks with some kind of 'Grand Opening' event and local newspaper coverage.

I have my proposal in hand and am off to Bridge Lake Store to try and convince Leroy and Kerry. I will report back later.
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Goals and guidelines
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Last week I announced and outlined Project Wine Shop. This post will delve a little deeper into the project, establish some benchmarks, set some goals, and define the parameters within which we will be working.

Departure Point

Currently, Bridge Lake Store offers about 60 SKUs. The selection is primarily Canadian with a heavy emphasis on low cost, generic products including quite a few boxed wines. The store also stocks about a dozen Australian wines and a smattering of Chilean, US, and European brands. Again, the focus is generally on cost.



The customers of Bridge Lake store appear to like their wines cheap and uncomplicated. Favorites include the ubiquitous Yellow Tail, Peller Estates proprietor's reserve boxed wines, Turning Leaf white zinfandel, and Mateus Rose.

As you can see, the store has extremely limited shelf space. Some of this is due to the fact that beer and spirits account for the lion's share of sales and therefor are allocated more space, but primarily it is because the store is legally restricted from expanding the floor space devoted to liquor sales. The store can only devote 10% of its total floor space to liquor.

Leroy and Kerry estimate that wine sales run at around 3 cases per week for most of the year, and rise to 6 cases per week in the summer.

Goals

1. Improve the general quality of wines offered in the store without dramatically increasing prices.
2. Improve and broaden the selection of wines available by reducing the Canadian content and adding from other regions.
3. Add simple tools to help educate customers and make their purchasing decisions easier.
4. Create and promote a 'Special Order' program that allows customers to order wines from a more varied and substantial offering (200 SKUs).
5. Increase average sales to 6 cases a week within one year, and to 12 cases per week within two years.
6. Launch a wine of the month program to introduce at least one interesting, high QPR (Quality Price Ratio) wine to the store's customers every month.

Parameters

All wines must be purchased through the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB). Although Leroy and Kerry are allowed to bring wines in through other distribution channels, the LDB delivers the wine for free and with only a day or two's notice. The LDB wine database can be accessed through their comprehensive and searchable website.

The total number of SKUs offered must not exceed 60.

As a general guide most of the wines should retail at between $8.00 - $12.00 with very few selling for more than $20.00. The LDB website includes retail pricing for all of its wines.

I believe it makes sense, in this market, to try and offer more recognizable brands whenever possible. If, for example, a choice must be made between Yellow Tail Shiraz and a lesser known wine with a similar QPR, the YellowTail should win out. The Special Order program is the place for high QPR wines with low recognition among occasional wine drinkers.

Mission

Prepare a 60 SKU (or less if you wish) wine list that meets the criteria outlined above.
Suggest high QPR wines that would make excellent candidates for the "Special Order" or "Wine of the Month" programs.
Outline any additional ideas that you think might help Leroy and Kerry enhance their wine shop and sell more wine.

Thank you all for helping out with Project Wine Shop. I will post my suggestions next week.





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A small country store with plans to revolutionize its wine shop.
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Last year my wife and I moved house. Okay, that's a bit of an understatement - we made a move, considered by many most of our friends to be the most damning evidence yet of our total insanity. We moved 250 miles, from the town of Chilliwack - where my business is headquartered - to the tiny community of Bridge Lake, population: practically nobody.

Life in Bridge Lake revolves around the lake itself, the community center, the school, and Bridge Lake Store, the community's post office, grocery store, gas station, fishing tackle, and liquor store. The store is owned by Leroy and Kerry Wright who welcome every customer with a smile and know most of them by name.

It dawned on me recently that, while there are other stores in the area that sell wine, nobody has made an effort to corner the market with a really well thought out selection. I mentioned this to Leroy the other day and suggested that, with a little help from my friends at the OWC (Open Wine Consortium) we could probably improve the store's wine offering and help him develop a reputation as the place to go for great wine.

Leroy loved the idea and so here we are, faced with a unique challenge, and requiring input. In my next post, Leroy, Kerry, and I will outline the current business model (rough sales volumes, current SKUs, marketing strategy, purchasing restrictions, etc), outline the unique challenges facing a wine shop entrepreneur in this rural market, and suggest some goals for the wine shop.

I hope that all of you will give Leroy and Kerry's store some thought and help us come up with a winning wine selection and marketing strategy.

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