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November/December 2016 • Beverage Dynamics 19
plans, layout,
product flow and
shelf schematics
to develop the
best assortment
and local stores may customize orders
based on local customer requests.
Each premium store has an educated
retail wine specialist, whose responsibility
it is to deliver customer service for pre-
mium collection products. Central buy-
ers periodically send out items they think
offer good value to the wine specialists
and they can order whatever they think
their clientele will buy.
The PLCB has also developed
brands for its own wine selections: the
Chairman's Selection and Chairman's
Advantage brands. For these, separate
buyers look for quality wine that can
be sold at a discount of at least 40 per-
cent. "We buy about 500 different SKUs
a year and at any one time have about
125 available," Horst says. The Chair-
man's Selection is for wines above $10
and is sold in both standard and pre-
mium Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores.
The Chairman's Advantage wines retail
for $10 and under.
The change has been welcomed by
shoppers both from in-state and be-
yond, officials say, which has been the
Fine Wine & Good
Spirits stores range
in size from 1,200 to
15,000 square feet.
goal from the start. "We've gone from bars on the windows and counter service to
self service and a warm and welcoming environment," Brassell says. "When we do
grand openings, on more than one occasion someone walks into the store and looks
around and says 'When did the state get out of the booze business and let private
retail take over?'" It's the sort of impact the PLCB hoped for with the new retail
brand, and it seems to have stuck. BD
JACK ROBERTIELLO is the former editor of Cheers magazine and writes about beer, wine,
spirits and all things liquid for numerous publications. More of his work can be found at www.
jackrobertiello.com.
