How many wine stores have you been to? I have been to a few, but never understand how the store display their wine because I never actually walked around a wine store. I been to the wine store when I was little a few time with family, but parents always said to stay by their side which I never got the chance to look around the store. Due to this assignment, I got a chance to look around and ask some questions.

The retail beverage store I choose was Astor Wine and Spirits located at 399 Lafayette Street.

As I was searching for the location, it was not really hard to find. It is a very noticeable big red building. When you walk in, it is quite big and fancy and they have televisions hung up on the walls telling you what promotions and events they have. The employees at the store are very friendly and helpful. In the store their display is nicely organized. They display their wines in different section based on price and taste. The wine is also separated by the type of wine and region with a sign above the wine.

It is interesting having signs of the regions above the wine and provide some information on them about the wine. I had a lot of fun reading the signs because I can learn more things about it. Using the knowledge I earned from class, I practiced reading labels while looking around the store. It was a really fun experience there. Other than the wines displayed on the floor, they also have a cool room for wines that need to be controlled in temperature.

After taking a look round the store, I had some questions for the employee. The employee was really nice and willing to answer all my questions. Their employee answered my questions clearly and phrased it in a way I could understand. They also respond to my questions quite quickly and with a confident, showing me they have the knowledge of knowing their wine and information very well.

First question I asked was, which is the most popular wine and why? The employee said the most popular bestselling wine is their sparkling wine. Sparkling wine is the most popular wine because the price is cheap, under $10 and their store has been promoting the wine for parties, and wine itself is a great value bubble wine. Other popular wines are the ones that are pricing between $10-15.

Seeing the cool room got me wondering about temperature, so next question I asked was, What temperature do you store the wine? The employee respond “it depends on the wine.” For their older wine, they have it in their temperature control room at about 55 degree. On the floor their temperature is around 60 to 65 degrees.

Another question asked was, What is your best value wine? Their best value wines were from France whether they are red or white. The employee did not give me a specific name for the red wine, but as from white wine, Sauvignon Blanc with the price of $9-10.

The last question I asked really curious of what kind of wine it is because I never heard of it before. I asked, Do you see any trends? I got interested when the employee responded “Natural Wine, Organic Wine.” Hearing that really got me interested because I knew there was organic wine.

Not only did organic wine interest me, I also thought it was interesting when I saw display of “Wines that Staff Adore.” I would never expect a retail beverage store to have a section for staff adores. I think this is interesting because if a store has a section of staff adore meaning the company would like to understand and know what the staff likes to drink. It is just like how retail beverage store would always like to know what customers like to drink and buy. Staff are customers too, they like to drink and buy things too. I like the idea of this display because it gives other customers another opinion of which wine to choose.

This trip to the retail beverage store I had fun and learned a lot. I got to see so many different types of wine varieties. As of the store, I think a benefit was their price range which allowed people to purchase some best tasting wine at an affordable price. A drawback about them was that although they had signs with some information about the region, but not information of the wines. And as for the store’s attributes/ weakness, I think they did not show any weakness, but the staff had very nice attitude, friendly and informative. I would recommend others to come and take a look and purchase come wines.