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As Wine Megastores Grow, Small Shops Focus on Service, Rare Vintages

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

By Michael Sasso, Tampa Tribune, Fla.

Oct. 5--TAMPA -- At the new Total Wine & More superstore on Dale Mabry Highway, at least 80 feet of shelf space, spanning 11/2 store aisles, is devoted to cabernet sauvignon. As big as some small supermarkets, the store's aisles are nearly overflowing with French wine, Italian wine, dessert wine, wine "with legs" and wine without legs.

All this selection naturally concerns James Mela, whose family has run the intimate Vintage Wine Cellars in south Tampa for nearly 30 years.

Is Total Wine the new Wal-Mart or Home Depot of the wine business, he wonders. If so, where does that leave his independent Henderson Boulevard wine store?

Owners of small, family-owned shops such as Mela's are asking tough questions as chain stores start entering an industry historically dominated by independent stores and supermarkets in Florida. Total Wine & More and at least two other wine retail chains, Tampa-based Cork & Olive and Margate-based WineStyles, also are expanding in the Tampa market.

"I think Total Wine represents the bigger picture, the growing of deep discounters in the wine business, and that could steal my customers," said Mela, whose father, Bronson, opened Vintage Wine Cellars under a previous name in 1978. The family also owns a wine shop in Lakeland.

Mela joined the wine business in 1988, and during that time he could count on two saving graces: Independent stores could always offer more personal attention than chain stores, and Vintage could search the globe for hard-to-find specialty wines. That meant he could survive as a mom-and-pop store even as Publix Super Markets and Costco gobbled up market share for the biggest brands, such as Robert Mondavi and Beringer, Mela said.

A few Florida-based chains such as Orlando-based ABC Fine Wine & Spirits and Gainesville-based Wine Warehouse co-existed with the small independents and the supermarkets, Mela said.

Now, a new breed of chain stores is trying to rattle the local industry, claiming they can sell wine inexpensively and still offer personal attention. The most intimidating of the newcomers may be Total Wine & More, a Potomac, Md.-based chain that operates 37 megastores across the South and Mid-Atlantic region.

Its new Tampa store, which opened on Aug. 30 near Interstate 275 and Dale Mabry Highway, is seven times as big as Mela's 2,400-square-foot store. It has 8,000 sizes and varieties of wine, compared with Vintage Wine Cellars' 1,200, boasts Total Wine co-owner David Trone. Trone said Total Wine typically can beat competitor prices by 15 percent.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Ralph and Kim Massetti of FishHawk Ranch stopped at Total Wine hoping to find the exact wine they shared during their summer trip to France. At a typical wine shop, that might be an impossible task, but they were hopeful Total Wine would have it.

Eureka!

"I think this is what we had," Kim said, turning over a bottle of Cotes du Rhone red-white blend.

At the moment, Total Wine is content with just one local store, Trone said, but other chains are planning more aggressive expansions.

WineStyles is preparing its first two local stores in Belleair Bluffs and Safety Harbor. Its stores are far smaller than Total Wine & More, at about 2,000 square feet each, but will be more of a boutique with higher-quality wines and personal service, said Jerry Minton, who owns the right to develop WineStyles stores in Central and North Florida. By spring, WineStyles may have nine stores in the area, most of which will be owned by franchisees, Minton said.

Cork & Olive co-founder Michael Probst did not respond to interview requests this week. His company's Web site says Cork & Olive has five stores open in the area and four more on the way.

All the chains are chasing a boom in wine sales. According to a story in the Los Angeles Times in July, 270 million cases of wine were sold or consumed last year, which was up 3.7 percent from the year before, while beer sales and consumption was up a scant 0.6 percent. The Times information was compiled by the Norwalk, Conn.-based Adams Beverage Group, which tracks the wine and spirits industry.

So, will all the new high-powered competition kill off the smaller wine retailers?

One Northern Virginia man has encouraging words. Dave Barber leads the Annandale, Va., chapter of the American Wine Society. Total Wine & More has eight superstores in the Washington, D.C., market -- more than any other area. So far, it appears that by creating boutiques with hard-to-find wines, mom-and-pop stores have managed to survive, Barber said.

Tribune researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report.

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Source: Tampa Tribune

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