For my retail store assignment, I had visited two of the retail wine stores with my friends at March 13th. One of the location that I have visited is a Gnarly Wine and Heights Chateau.

Gnarly Vine

A sparkling France wine called Rosa Rose Rosam, produced by Domaine La Grange Tiphaine Year 2016

I first visited Gnarly Vine which is in 350 Myrtle Ave. I picked this location because it takes twenty minutes to travel by walking from the school to my destination. I made an appointment a week before I visited on March 13th at 2:30 pm. As soon as I arrived in the store, the staffs forgot that they have an appointment with us. The manager of the store had one of the staff to answer my questions. Based from my knowledge of what I learned from the staff, the Gnarly Stores had been running the store for 10 years. The wine that the staff will recommend to the customers is based on what region that they preferred. In her opinion, she recommended to order a cheap wine that is around in the year of 2002. I took a tour around the store setup and realized the Gnarly Vine have some attributes and weaknesses. The store looks a little messy but organized because there are labels for each and every of the wine that are displayed in the shelves. They put information on the map of the region, description, producer, and the price. However, there are boxes everywhere which makes it hard to make a path for people to walk through and some of the bottles were displayed where you can’t see the labels on the vintage. The store was also not sanitized properly and it would not be good to have dust gathered to the wine bottles nor the shelves.

My next visit to Heights Chateau which is in 123 Atlantic Ave. I picked this location because of the customers’ review on Heights and a short distance to walk from the school. I made an appointment at the same date at 4:30 pm. When I arrived in the store, I spoke to a staff named Dave who answered my questions about Heights Chateau. Dave had told me that Heights Chateau had been running the business for more than 20 years. Originally their store was in Ave V but move where it is more spacious and for the 15 staffs to work. In the store, they have the owner and the manager to take charge tasting wine and writing about it in the portfolio. He gave us list of various wines that customers that often ordered based on their age. Young people would buy American wines and older people will buy American wines or Scotch because they prefer a sweet taste. Dave is knowledgeable about the marketing that they own 20% of New York State wine. Dave keep checks on the temperature to be around 55 degrees for the wines’ condition. As I toured around the store, I had found the store has many attributes. The store is spacious which many room to walk through and many of the shelves are label to be either biodynamic and organic. They applied soft rock music played and ladders for reach wines on the upper shelves. In the back of the house, they have a set of kitchen house for wine tasting. They also have another room that leads to where they kept their portfolios. It shows that the management that the store had run is very neat and organized.

Heights Chateau

A Chile wine called Tannat, produced by Vinedo de los Vientos Year 2014