The first store I visited is a local favorite in my neighborhood, Wine & Spirit Co. of Forest Hills. It is located on 72-09 Austin St, Forest Hills; the store has been open for 20 years on Queens Blvd, it has since moved to its current location for about 8 years. The store is owned by Danny Bentz, and I had the pleasure of meeting three of his employees, Richard (who calls himself the professor of white wine), Carlos and James. They were very friendly. They were very happy to help me with my project, but they were reluctant to let me take any photos. They did eventually. I went in around lunch time so they were getting ready for lunch; Richard was eating a roasted chicken, so he gave me a friendly lecture on wine and food paring, like how a chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc will go excellent with his meal. The store has three sections; the front houses the cheaper, more affordable and low quality wines. The middle section houses spirits and the most common high-quality wines and the back houses the more expensive and high-quality wines.  The wines are then organized by region, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Germany, with the exception of USA wines, that’s organized by grape varieties. There is also a small section of kosher wine due to the large population of the Jewish community in Forest Hills. All of their wines are at eye level, with the top and bottom selves as stock. James told me that their sugary wines, blends and the not so dry cabernets are their best sellers. The store is a bit messy in terms of organization, they did not have any large labels or indications on the regions, so I had to ask James  several times to show me where each region is located in their store. James did however explain why, he said “most people who come in to our store doesn’t know what they want, so we organize our wine the way it is because it’s easier for us.” He also said that a lot of our customers are old time customers so they already know where the wines they want are.

The storefront, they are currently in a process of installing a new sign.                                 
The view of the entire store, you can see that there are three sections.

This is the front of the store, where they store the more affordable, lower-quality wines.

The back section of the store where they store the more expensive, higher quality wines.

This is a special section just for Cabernet. It’s the only section in the store where the wines are organized by price. Top shelve is the most expensive with a bottle of Cabernet that’s $120!

The stock shelves.

The Pinot Noirs. The little sign in the back gives a small description of it. It says “… the red grape of Burgundy… balanced black cherry-like fruit…”

They also have a nice selection of hard liquor. I bought a bottle of grey goose, Richard gave me a 15% discount and told me to write good things about them.

The second store I visited is called Mr. Vino and it is located on 10702a 71st Ave, Forest Hills. I did not have a good experience here. I came in here about a week ago and was told to come back next Monday when the manager is here. The manager is America Diaz. The store was very small but it was a lot more organized and clean than the first store i visited. They have a very large selection of wine from all over the world, France, Spain/Portugal, Bordeaux, Italy/Greece, and Germany/Austria. It is organized in that order from the left of the store and circles around to the right with Argentina, Chile, Australasia, and New Zealand in the middle. All their wines are also at eye level with the top and bottom shelves as stock like the first store. They are a small selection of vintage and USA wines behind the register in a glass box. They also have interesting beehive design of the shelves. Ms. Diaz wasn’t very friendly, she told me that she is not going to answer if I had more than 10 questions, she said she was very busy and I didn’t come at the right time. Ms. Diaz did tell me that they get their wines from a lot of different companies and she knows what the population in Forest Hills want. Most of their wines are under $30.

She did not allow me to take any pictures.

But here is the storefront.

They also have a cheese shop right around the corner.