For my retail shop analysis, I had the opportunity of visiting Mister Wright Fine Wines & Spirits, which is located at 1593 3rd Avenue on the Upper East Side. The store opened in 1976 and say they specialize in hard to find wines, and offering great prices on well-known brands. Before visiting the shop, I did some research for myself on their website just to get a bit of background. The store does offer tastings but it is very rare, the last one being in July of 2017. They also provide their customers with the option of actually ordering online, which I have seen becoming a trend in many wine and hard liquor establishments. The prices are fairly well and there is a great variety.
The manager Jodi was very polite and hands on with her staff members on the floor. I spoke with her briefly and the first thing I was curious to know about, was how they decided on their wine placement throughout the store. She told me that they base the placement on the country, which they then go deeper with by placing the sale items up closer to get customers looking into new items. They also base placement on the quantity of a certain wine they order, sometimes these wines are more rare and only certain customers know about it because they have ordered it. On occasion they will order a small quantity of a new wine or spirit to see how well it does in the store so they can add it to their inventory. The shop also orders seasonal items which Jodi says usually gets placed right up front for all customers to see because they do particularly well.
I asked if there was one specific item that they are getting asked for more of now, and it is Bulgarian Tequila. Personally, I know the classic Mexican Tequila so this was a bit of a shock to know that Tequila made in Bulgaria was even a thing. Finding this out led me to ask if there were any customers who make requests for special or specific wines or spirits, and she said that they do not serve too many customers who do but that they can order pretty much anything upon request. For these more expensive and rare wines/beverages, they do have four temperature controlled refrigerators and a temperature controlled wine room. The best sellers at the shop depend on if there are any holidays around that specific time, the type of wine and/or spirit, and the specific country because they serve so many different countries at the shop. Overall, I think that Mister Wright Fine Wines & Spirits is a fantastic shop with an amazing selection and offer prices that anyone can afford.
A Pinot Noir Chardonnay from South Africa
The shelf talkers are only located on specific items throughout the store and usually have a few sentences on that item for the customers to get some knowledge before purchasing.
2016 Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley
A red wine from Rioja Alta located in Spain