jamie goode's wine blog: Majestic's news: two big developments

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Majestic's news: two big developments



Today UK merchant Majestic announced that they are changing their mininum purchase policy, from 12 bottles to six bottles.

Since their beginnings in 1981, their business model has been to sell by the case. While this restricted their potential customer base, it meant that they could open premises in places where a normal retail wine shop selling by the bottle wouldn't be possible for licensing reasons. The one exception has been the Majestic shop attached to Vinopolis, near London Bridge station, where single bottle purchases are possible.

It turned out that people quite like to visit Majestic stores where they can park, fill up a box with 12 or more bottles, and then load them into their car. They now have 150 stores and are effectively a category buster: they have no competition for what they do.

It's unlikely that they'll lose money from this shift in policy. After all, they have trialled the 6 bottle minimum in a number of stores over the last few months, so they have a good idea of what will happen to sales.

But while many people have commented on the new 6 bottle minimum, perhaps more significant is their new venture, Wine Uncorked. This is a free in-store introduction to wine course, which will be led by Majestic store managers. I think it's a brilliant initiative, both for the consumers who take advantage of this opportunity, and also the managers who will presumably find running these courses a rewarding experience.

Wine trade commentators, who tend to be a bunch of doom-mongers, are using this Majestic news to predict the end of independents/Oddbins/Wine Rack, but I think they are being overly pessimisstic.

Majestic's initiative might encourage people who aren't really into wine to become hobbyists - the sort of involved wine consumers who then in turn begin shopping at high-end independent wine merchants. While Majestic have recently branched out into fine wine selling, involved consumers are a promiscuous bunch who will buy wine in all sorts of different places, and are unlikely to restrict their purchasing to just one retail outlet.

Labels:

4 Comments:

At 4:15 PM, Anonymous Robert McIntosh said...

I agree in general. I hope I didn't come across too much as a doom-monger but this is certainly not a clear cut positive move for failing competitor chains (mentioning no names) nor for beleaguered independents.

The education angle is certainly good for Majestic (I've not experienced it so couldn't comment) and it *could* help educate consumers in general who go on and buy more wine elsewhere, but I'm not so sure, at least not on its own. However, it might be a good spur for more wine education elsewhere - on radio, TV, internet, etc.

 
At 1:41 PM, Anonymous Steve said...

Oddbins are going to have to follow the six bottle route. At the moment their pricing policy (20 % off for a mixed twelve) is idiotic, an insult to any passing trade in need of a couple of bottles for a dinner party, or for those without a car to carry cases. (You can however get six bottles into a pushchair, and I have done)

 
At 7:14 AM, Blogger Chris Townend said...

Is there a spectrum of winos ranging from those who don't recognise wine as a beverage through to professionals qualified up to and including the Master of Wine?
Where do you include yourself?

 
At 9:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back from holiday and catching up with your usually interesting blog, Jamie. But disturbed to find you regurgitating the big retailers' PR efforts. First Tesco and now this. It's really not news to find a wine retailer selling cases of 6 bottles.

I understand it may be difficult to keep up daily posts, but please please please don't go down this route. I'd rather have a simple tasting note... even a Man City update!

 

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home