Astor Wine & Spirits – Retail Store Assignment

For my retail wine project, I have chosen to visit Astor wine and spirits which is located in 399 Lafayette St, New York. The reason I chose this place is because of the positive reviews online through Yelp.

Astor Wine and Spirits was established in 1946. I was not able to speak with manager as he was not available but he was kind enough to let one of his staff members give me a small tour of the place and answer some of my questions.

At first sight, the store looks intimidating as it is large and sort of overwhelming with so many wines placed in wooden shelves that you don’t know where to start from. The place is very spacious compare to some other wine stores where most of the time is Once you let your first impressions through you realize that the store layout is attractively decorated and is set up to where wines can easily be found by country, region and grape varieties. When you first walk into a country section you will see signs on the shelves with the name of the different regions that produced wine. For each region the sign gives a small description of the region its representing. Then you will notice shelf talkers below each wine. The shelf talkers give a small description of the wine. The person guiding me told me that some wine stores decide not to use shelf talkers because they want to interact more with the customer but Astor Wine and Spirits decided to keep them because some customers find them very helpful.

My first question was how and where do they store the wines. One of the workers was kind enough to let me view the cellar where they store the expensive and other wines at the right temperature, 55F. I expected to go into a basement where they had some sort of fridge but instead it was a beautiful room with glass doors and wines in either wooden shelves or boxes.

My second question was if there is a new existing wine how do they introduce it to the public. He told me that they have a shelf at the front where people get to see new wines.He also informed me about their free wine tasting they offer during the week from 5pm to 8pm and Saturdays from 3pm to 6pm. They sometimes use this to introduce new wines to people as well.

My third question and 4th question was more towards their sales. I asked what country sells more and how do they keep track of it. He answered by stating that most people buy from the region of France. He also mentioned that they have a best selling shelf where they place all the wines that are the most popular which helps them keep track of what is producing the most sales.

In conclusion it was a fun and enjoyable experience to visit Astor Wine and Spirits.

“Shelf Talker” displays the name, vintage, price, and a description of the characteristics of the wine.

Red Wine: Bozeto de Exopto, Rioja is a red wine from spain from the region of Rioja.

Sparkling Wine not from France: Prosecco Treviso, is a beautiful sparkling wine from Italy, that contains pineapple, pear, and apple flavors.

Vlahiko is a red dry wine from Greece. It is from one of the coolest regions called Zitsa. The climate from this town is continental than Mediterranean.