As long as the winery doesn’t drop you from the list if you miss out, I’m happy with whatever system. First come is fine with me.
I’m still amused that you passed on the Le Bourg, you cheap bastard! You could have sold it to me for 2x or a Juge trade! Doh.
+1
Did you drop them because of the $15/bottle shipping charge or the 110% of actual retail pricing?
Myriad did send a “save the date” on January 4th. Just saying…
Then why even have a mailing list of exclusive customers?
I mean, really, you create a list, close it down to a specified number of buyers, at least give your buyers some time to “act”. I don’t know what the right time is, 72 hours, 5 days, whatever, but “first some, first serve” is like not even having a list of preferred customers.
I agree. Both on the freeing up money for other things (I have cut back a bit on my Cayuse purchases recently, thus freeing up some for those on the mailing list).
I also agree on the new customer issue. I think that is a wash though – that is, I think it is reasonable for a winery to either a) work to create a relatively closed dedicated group of buyers/consumers, or b) try to spread the wealth by letting new people get in. I don’t feel I can criticize either approach, as both have their advantages and disadvantages. One way to combine them would be to have a closed list, but then every year through a lottery someone gets to purchase a small allocation (but does not get on the permanent list). That might create a bit more buzz, and give some people a chance to try the wines and decide either to stay on the wait list or move on.
From a customer point of view who is on at least some lists, I definitely prefer the non FCFS system – though I would also agree that the window does not have to be that long – frankly even 24 hours would probably work. Though sometimes I am on planes for close to 24 hours, so that would be a problem; 48 hours should always work.
Nobody mentions that for fcfs you still have to be an existing customer, its not as if just anyone was buying. Would you prefer half the people get thrown off just so you are guaranteed ? Well of course you would unless you were one of the ones thrown out, plus theres two more Myriad releases this year, how m7ch cab do you need ?
I dropped them years ago because of all the self-centered crap they pulled on their mailing list customers.
Maybe its you Ken, i get great service from them
Looking at the Myriad Dr Crane Release letter there were 400 cases available to a mailing list of something like 7,000+ customers. 200 cases of the regular Dr Crane and 200 cases of Elysian You do the math and suggest how they were supposed to guarantee allocations. Cookie cutter approaches don’t always work for small operations.
For purely marketing purposes I would say I ended up buying far more wine from guaranteed allocations and continued to buy for longer periods of time from wineries with guaranteed allocations. I frequently would revisit offers I didn’t pull the trigger on right away. Frequently on second or third thought I would end up buying.
This happened far more often than I bought right away because I felt the pressure of time constraints of a first come first serve list.
So I ended up with more wine from guaranteed lists, drank more of their wine, and that also made me more inclined to go back and buy more, whereas with the first come wine, well, it would just fall off the radar for me, making it less likely I would care when the next offer came out.
Any winery that expects me to stop my schedule on a dime just for them isn’t getting my business.
If you’re a winery with a list give some time period for your list members to buy. then open to others or allow members to buy more. Pitting your own customers against each other for the “buy now or lose out” is total BS.
People that allow a business to dictate their lives need help.
At some point it becomes apparent to the seller that a wine will easily sell out (and quickly), thus the risk of unsold inventory is not a true threat. For example Realm had a FCFS approach initially but when wines started rapidly selling out they made the switch to guaranteed allocations. Those with wines that are selling out in < 24 hours are choosing to let their long time supporters get shut out.
Well, except for your business. There, I think we’re required to . . . 
I agree with this sentiment. I used to think when I hit the wine buy button that I really wanted new eyeglasses or some cool new shoes or a nice weekend getaway instead of more wine, but I bought anyway. Now I buy those things instead of more wine, with a few exceptions of course. And guess what, I still have plenty of wine in the basement. Plenty of good wine. I have come to the conclusion that there will always be very good wine to buy. So why worry.
One 375ml bottle for each customer lol
A) there’s nothing wrong with what Myriad is doing, and it certainly does make selling the wine easier; B) every winery I buy from (which admittedly is very few at this point) that has any limited production wines where quantity is exceeded by number of mailing list customers, offers those wines in a guaranteed allocation of some kind - or at least makes the attempt to give preference to its longer term or higher purchasing customers.
Isn’t it really about the attitude of the producer toward its customers, and the amount of effort they are willing to put into creating a positive customer experience? Having said that, I don’t blame a small producer for being overwhelmed by the process, and just opening up sales to FCFS. If that works long term, then I guess it’s OK.
The Bedrock model?
Imagine you are the second person on that list and for years have bought very large quantities of the wine. And one day a first come, first serve email is sent to all the list owners, and you happen to be unavailable, and somebody who just made the list and has never purchased anything before, is the very first person to hit reply, and therefore snags bottles that perhaps would’ve been allocated to you under a different methodology.
This is of course situational. If you are the long term purchaser, it is disappointing, and may lead you to drop the wine (either after some rational process or out of anger or spite or some combination). For the new purchaser, this is a great development. From the point of view of the winery? I think it really depends on what sort of relationship they want to develop with their customers; how widely they want their wine to be distributed; and so many other things.