Will the Winestyles Franchise be the Starbucks of Wine?
March 11, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under WINE FRANCHISES
(FranchisePick.Com) How’s this for freaky: a former assistant baseball coach read about the Winestyles franchise on websites like this one, bought a Winestyles franchise, and now is featured on a website like this one. Actually, he’s featured on the website that is this one. Weird. Whoever said wine imitates life knew what he was talking about.
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St. Petersburg Times’ Lisa Buie tells of the man who dreams of creating a wine store that is “third place” for wine lovers to congregate, “much like Starbucks has done for coffee connoisseurs.” (FYI, the first two places are home & work). Here’s an excerpt:
Franchise suits wine to taste
By Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer Published March 11, 2008
WESLEY CHAPEL - Wine enthusiasts will soon have another choice close to home.
WineStyles, a chain of wine stores that groups wines by taste rather than country of origin or grape variety, is opening a 2,150-square-foot store at the outparcel of SuperTarget on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. That’s the new strip mall with the colorful, striped awnings.
The Wesley Chapel store will feature a 1,400-square-foot indoor area that will offer 150-plus wines. Customers can buy based on eight categories: crisp, silky, rich, bubbly, fruity, mellow, bold and nectar - the sweet dessert wines. Prices will mostly range from $10 to $25 a bottle, though franchise owner Troy Melquist will have a pricier area dubbed “If You Must.”
But Melquist wants to do more than sell bottles. He hopes to make the store a “third place” for wine lovers to congregate, much like Starbucks has done for coffee connoisseurs. That’s why he’s adding a 750-square- foot patio and offering a bar inside to encourage sipping.
“We want people to feel like Norm from Cheers,” Melquist said. To open the store, he’s giving up a business producing videos of championship high school athletic events because, as the father of two, he was tired of being on the road, and he is engaged to be married soon.
Melquist, 44, a former assistant baseball coach for Zephyrhills High School, toyed with the idea of a sports bar but was drawn to WineStyles because of its positive ratings on franchise Web sites. He toured a few in Orlando and was impressed.
He hopes to open in the spring, shortly after he gets county approval for selling wine… READ ON
In Vino Franchising…
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Considering this is a business that is, like Starbucks, what’s “in” at the moment, I would be most concerned about 1-the area of location-it’s already saturated with wine stores and not in a higher income area, which would be more appropriate for this type of wine store. 2-As this is a newer franchise, interest in regards to longevity would also be cause for concern in owning such a franchise. Time will only tell. It will be interesting to see, with current economy, if it will take off.
Good points, John. The economy can have an opposite effect than expected sometimes. We grew the Auntie Anne’s Pretzel chain through a down economy and did very well. People still came to the mall, but instead of blowing it out at the dept. stores, they basked in the free air conditioning and had a pretzel. The affordable luxuries do not always suffer.
Well… I’m not an expert, I suppose could work, but… the first thought I had was no one ever got pulled over for driving while intoxicated after leaving a Starbucks.
My second thought was will there be free munchies? (gotta have fish-shaped crackers-which I prefer to the more expensive wine crackers) Since I frequent wineries for the free crackers, not so much the wine.
Will he offer gourmet foods and cheeses too, how about cigars? Impulse buying in those categories tend to be good, especially with on the ball sales people. Will he offer accouterments to the wine such as fine wine glasses?
Although with this economy I wonder if people will be splurging on wine or even going to a specialty wine store for their vino; where I live it can be bought at the grocery store, so one trip and I can get my snacky crackies & wine.
K