For the Retail Beverage Shop Analysis I went to Astor Wine and Spirits, located 399 Lafayette Street. I’ve never visited a winery before so this was going to be my first time and I was really excited. Upon my arrival, I noticed the decor, outside is a red flag with their name on it. It really catches your eyes. I wasn’t the only one walking in multiple people behind me walked in as well. I first browsed around and then went to speak with the store employee. I asked them how exactly are the wines organized since there is such a vast collection of multiple wines. It’s set up by country, then region, and last but not least the grape variety. Within each section each wine are priced at different expenses. The cheaper wines (but not cheap in quality) are on the bottom and as you work your way up the prices get higher. The company has 25 distributors and they work with the distributor strictly made for New York which makes sense. There’s many sections within the store and it is displayed by a circular sign above the section of each wine giving you information about the wines there. What amazed me was that there was a tasting area. I believe that’s a great idea because it gives the customer a chance to taste a new wine before buying and not liking it in the end. A huge wine shop like this should have a reason to be up and standing for as long as they have and I was told it was because of their great customer service (just like any other place, not just wine). They try not to cater and support big wine company or distributors, but instead try to support the smaller companies, which i think is great. Another thing they do is send emails to their customers about their wines. I was really surprised finding out the types of wine that came out of Mexico and I was able to go to the section and take a look. Mexico made red wine and that’s their specialty I was told. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I would definitely visit and buy wine when I become of age from Astor Wine and Spirits. 

RedWine From Region I Did Not Know Made Wine . Mexico

Sparkling wine Not From France

Red Wine From Spain

Shelf Talker

I live in Astoria, Queens and I frequently visit Omega Fine Wine and Spirits, so I decided to write about them. The owners are from Greece, so they have a really big selection of Greek wines. It is a small retail wine shop, located in the shopping plaza near Ditmars boulevard subway station. Alex, who works here is an enthusiastic young man, always in a good mood and ready to answer all of the customer’s questions. Also, everyone that works there is so friendly and helpful.The staff is always willing to take a walk around the store with you to recommend something that fits your needs. They make you feel like a friend and this is why I like coming here so often.They have a wonderful selection of really nice wines for any budget and they are always coming up with different deals for loyal customers.

Front of the retail wine store

As I said, the store is really small, but they really offer many different choices. They have wine from many different countries.

Red wine selection

Sparkling wine selection

I asked about their best red wine from Spain and they recommended those 3 choices:

Red wines from Spain

Emilio Moro is the most popular Spanish wine among customers and it costs $25.99.

While I searched for the sparkling wine, one specific area caught my attention-it was marked as SUPER SALE and all the wines were under $5. I picked up one bottle and I saw that it was from Slovenia, which is so close to where I am from, Serbia and I couldn’t believe that Slovenia actually makes wine. The dust on the bottle and super sale tells me that many people don’t know it either.

Wine from Slovenia

My further research resulted in finding wines from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which I also didn’t know existed !! I was very excited to find wines from my sister countries.

Wine from Bosnia and Herzegovina

I only found only one shelf talker, but there were several deals and discounts throughout the store:

Shelf talker

One of the store’s deals and discounts

I chose to write about particular sparkling wine from Italy because Alex told me it was the most popular in the store. With its low price and great taste, many customers choose this wine over many others

.Sparkling wine from Italy

I also stumbled upon very interesting label that caught my attention. It had very interesting picture up from and very little information about wine, I found it very interesting and mysterious.

Interesting wine label

And, for the end of this assignment I wanted to leave a comment about the store weakness. As I said before, the sore is very popular among customers due to amazing wine selection, low prices and very friendly staff but the only thing that I find as the should improve is- marking the wine countries and making it easier for people to find what are they looking for. For example, I think they should mark the different areas of the store as : Wines of Italy, Wines of France, Wines of Greece etc. I believe that would be very helpful for their business.

I enjoyed this assignment very much.