At Classic Wine Direct we’re pretty upfront about what we do – we can’t compete with supermarkets on price so we offer wines from off the beaten track instead. these wines tend to be more full of taste and better quality. However, it can be difficult for wine drinkers to understand the true value of a wine.
the chief executive for the wine trade confirmed many of the deals are a rip off.
The fact that a leading player in the wine business had admitted that consumers were being conned caused many a raised eyebrow.
Spiret confirmed that many of deals in retail supermarkets are not deals at all. simply, a bottle reduced from £7.99 to £3.99 is often worth only £3.the first place of 99.
retails brands use the policy of marking up and then mark down. The customer will then beleive he is getting a quality wine for a bargain price. Confused? thats what we think generally.
The industry beleives that the “mass market” wine drinker is obsessed by the £3.99 price point and this affects the way that retailers are selling us wine and the way that some suppliers are now producing their wines.
In Spiret’s mind ’Consumers know they are getting misled … they get used to it. At the end of the day, it just leads to the impoverishment of the wine trade”.
Spiret’s gives us an inside view of the true tricks in which wine is sold by the big retailers. it gives the impression that big retailers view their customers to be lazy and ignorant.
spiret was making us aware of the tricks of marketing wine.
Given that supermarkets represent two thirds of wine sales in the UK, these practices also have a direct effect on the public perception of the value of wine.
do they really get a bottle for £7.wine values range from £3.99.99 bottle then it follows that it will be much harder for the independent wine retailer to sell something whose real value is (and always was) £7.99.
this type of marketing leaves it open to all sorts of underhand practices.
However, if the political mood continues to be against discount selling for alcohol, it will be interesting to see how the big retailers find a real price for wines they have knowingly mis-sold for the last 10 years.
