Look, Total Wine is big, it has a ton of wine (obvi), and it is often conveniently located, but we just are not convinced about Total Wine, and we do not enjoy shopping there. For a wine store that is so huge, the selection seems kind of crappy frankly. Why is that? In this podcast, we go into some depth into explaining why, and what some better alternatives are. This is just our opinion, though, so hear us out, and we would love to hear from you to hear what you think.
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Show Notes
Minisode #15: Why Total Wine is Sus!
Hi everyone, and welcome to this special mini-episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair.
If you are new to The Wine Pair Podcast, these minisodes are just shorter versions of the regular podcast that we put on weeks where we might be traveling or handling other life stuff, and instead of tasting and reviewing two to three wines under $20 that are easy to find, which is what we usually do in our longer episodes, in the minisodes, we focus more on things like wine etiquette, wine education, and wine tips. And, we try to make it fun and understandable to regular, everyday people like us! And our podcast is recommended by Decanter magazine. Which is pretty fun.
Today, Carmela, we are going to talk about why we think Total Wine is Sus, as the kids say. I have been thinking about this for a while because, look, I know that Total Wine can be convenient, but I really dislike shopping there, and I have been thinking about why that is. I also have been doing a little looking around online to see if I am the only one, and I am definitely not.
Now, if you like Total Wine or Bev Mo or another one of those big wine shops, that is just fine. We are not here to judge you. We are just going to tell you why we don’t really like Total Wine. And I am not going to pretend like I never go there. There are times when I stop by, mostly for this show, because 1) I know people go there and I want to find wines that people can find relatively easily, 2) they do have a big selection, something like 8,000 wines in a store, and so sometimes you can find wines there that are hard to find other places, and 3) we have a Total Wine pretty close to where we live, and so it is convenient.
But there are a few reasons why Total Wine has a mixed reputation, and probably the one at the heart of it all is based on the concept of the Wal-Mart effect - the idea that it is a big store with a huge selection and national buying power and pushes prices down by aggressively negotiating and cornering the distribution in an area.
So, one of the effects of this is that when a store like Total Wine comes into an area, it kills local competition. I don’t know how often this happens, but Total Wine has been in several lawsuits where they have been accused of using predatory tactics. So, on that alone, I am not a fan. Nothing kills local small businesses or impacts a local community’s culture like a big mega-store coming into town. I understand that some people appreciate that a store like Total Wine may reduce prices, but I always say there is a price to pay for cheap. Someone is on the losing end when prices are consistently low.
Another impact, and the bigger reason for me from a wine quality perspective, has to do with the wines they decide to sell in their stores, particularly their Winery Direct wines. And this has a few significant downstream effects.
First, they get a good deal on their Winery Direct wines from distributors or winemakers, and so they have a lot of these wines - it seems to me a very high percentage when I am in the store. And many of these wines are difficult to find reviews on - which in and of itself is not necessarily a terrible thing, but it does indicate that they are focusing on quantity and price over quality, and how they are sourcing these wines feels very suspect. Winery Direct does not in any way imply quality - it just indicates price negotiation and bulk buying with 2nd or 3rd tier wine producers. In other words, the good wine producers do not need to cut a deal with Total Wine, but the less good ones can find advantages in doing so with guaranteed distribution. So, while you can find wines from a lot of different regions in the store, I would not trust the quality of most of their selection.
And even though they divide their wines into regions across countries in parts of the store, like Italy, Spain, Germany, etc., their selection is really not good. You will not find the best producers or highly regarded wines. Most of the time you will find Winery Direct crap that, again, feels like it is a low cost distributor special, which I am sure it is.
Furthermore, while they have some high end wines, overall their selection of top tier wines is very anemic, and so you can tell they are not catering to wine enthusiasts or serious wine collectors or drinkers. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does indicate that they are more like WalMart - meaning they are going to focus on bulk and pricing versus expertise and quality.
As a result of this, I also find their staff not very knowledgeable, and like a broker who gets paid on commission for selling certain products, they tend to push their Winery Direct wines and not seem to know a ton about wines in general - if you can find anyone in the store to help you in the first place. They tend to focus on price point over anything else, and a lot of their “employee favorite” wines where they have little signs next to the wines saying how much someone in the store likes it - are focused on Winery Direct or specific big wine distributors which means they are using what feels like homegrown advice to push a larger marketing initiative from corporate, something that, to me, is underhanded - and there is a great article in our show notes on how others have found the same thing.
So, when I go into a Total Wine, rather than being inspired, I kind of just get frustrated and irritated. For such a huge store, you would think they would be really good, but they are not. Some links in the show notes call them the GoodWill of wine stores. Maybe my expectations are too high, but you are not likely going to gain a ton of knowledge or discover some hidden gems in a place like Total Wine. And that’s too bad because my feeling is that they should be the perfect place to learn. If you are looking for interesting and low cost wines, I would suggest Trader Joe’s over Total Wine, and you know how I feel about Trader Joe’s.
If you want run-of-the-mill, typical, uninteresting, very average, and mass produced and mass distributed wines made for the average American palate, you will find your fill at Total Wine, but you might as well go to your local grocery store where you can get mediocre wines as well. And, I’m sorry that sounds judgy, and I don’t mean to be an asshole, but I just think that is no way to go through life. Wine should be an adventure that keeps you on your toes, learning and discovering. I don’t think we should settle for things like Olive Garden or Maggiano's Little Italy for Italian food when you can get much, much better Italian food from local restaurants, and I feel the same way about Total Wine.
If you really want to learn about wine, expand your understanding of wine, taste quality wines from around the world, then, other than listening to our podcast, which you should really do because we try and cover a lot of ground in terms of wines and regions that are affordable and available, what you really need to do is spend some time in a local wine shop with a small business owner who takes pride in finding and selecting great wines for her or his customers. That person will likely go out of their way to educate you and find you wines that you like and even order you wines that you can’t find.
So, there it is. Yes, a bit judgy, but again, we think you can do better than Total Wine without trying too hard.
If you want to see the sources for our content today and get the links to learn more, come to our website, look for this minisode, and open up the show notes. And there is a really fun string from Wine Berserkers called “triggered at Total Wine” that is super fun and entertaining to read.
Articles and Links
- https://www.dailydot.com/news/total-wine-and-more-bad-store/
- https://www.ratebeer.com/forums/total-wine-is-probably-evil-but-theyaere-so-damn-cheap_124128.htm
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizthach/2024/02/14/how-total-wine--more-became--largest-us-wine-retailer/
- https://redwhiteandcru.com/employee-recommendations/
- https://www.wineberserkers.com/t/triggered-at-total-wine/158737?page=6
You can also check out our other minisodes to learn more which you can find on our website or your favorite podcast service. You can follow us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast or you can visit our website thewinepairpodcast.com and in any of those places you can reach out to us directly, and you can send us an email at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. We also will have our show notes on our website, and we will include links to articles on this topic as well. And, on our website you can also sign up for our fun newsletter!
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