Do Case Discounts Actually Stifle Wine Purchases?
This question has been on my mind for some time so I thought I'd get it out there for discussion both from consumers and retailers alike. If you're like me and many of my friends, your cellar is full, you've got more wine than you need and yet you're always in the market for certain specific wines. If a retailer has a wine you're looking for, and that retailer has a pricing model where for example a mixed case is 20% off - what do you do? Do you put together a 12 bottle case of other wines you know you'll eventually drink? Do you get together with friends to split a mixed case? Or do you consider the whole production a hassle and delay the purchase indefinitely? Are case discounts actually having the opposite effect they're intended to have? There are basically three pricing models in stores in this respect: Low, medium, and high case discounts.
- Low
On the low side we have operations where the first bottle is offered at the maximum discount. There are no case discounts. - Medium
In the middle is a more moderate 10% - 15% discount for a mixed 12 bottle purchase. - High
At the other end of the spectrum are placed where 25% or even 30% discounts are offered for mixed case purchases of 36 bottles. Typical margin for a retail wine shop is 33% so when a retailer offers a 30% discount it's usually what's required to get the prices down out of the stratosphere.
Luján Fernández Magdalena Wróbel Maggie Grace Maggie Gyllenhaal