Wine and other drinking experts recommend you cozy up with a good local liquor store staff for sound advice. Popatop in Little Rock was said to be excellent for this. When we lived there years ago, She and I would ask two different clerks about, for example, which is the best non-Kahlua coffee liqueur — not to play tricks but we didn’t know what the other was doing. More than once, we’d get two different answers.
The best argument by local liquor stores against a large company opening a bottle shop is that you lose the advice, even though it comes at a little more cost for your patronage. Liquor stores, in Northwest Arkansas, are not necessarily little. Some have terrific revenues and lots of square feet, while others have a common owner, a regional monopoly.
A new Sam’s Club is to open this morning, Thursday, in Fayetteville (while Springdale’s simultaneously closed) but Monday its unique liquor store opened. It has only exterior access and otherwise complies with Arkansas laws. However, its existence is being fought by beverage retailers and some temperance types who worry that discount beer will increase alcoholism.
Because I want to support local business, I went to the Wal-Mart property to investigate Tuesday. Wal-Mart is local, here. I brought a shopping list.
At 548 square feet, according to a local newspaper, this is a modest liquor store. It’s certainly small in a Wal-Mart world. That would be just the showroom, I expect. No refrigerators — you’ll have to chill your own beer.
The variety was certainly wide but not deep. There’s no room, and, besides, that’s not the Sam’s way. It would offer three types of microwave ovens, not 14. The ends of each row — unlike Wal-Mart, Sam’s membership warehouse and other stores where specials are displayed — tended to have more-pricey to top-of-the-line bottles.
I thought there’d be more $7-$12 wines, and I’m someone who prefers a solid unpretentious wine, but it felt like the bulk of Sam’s wines were $12 to $25. Some wines were over $100 a bottle. Those naturally tended to be on the aisle caps.
All staff — and it seemed some were corporate store setter-uppers — were not only cordial but helpful. I chose not to test their knowledge. That’s not why you go to Sam’s for anything.
The liquor cabinet at Shady Hills needs a touch-up restocking only twice a year. It’s at least a month early, but I wanted to check it out before the “revenooers” shut it down. If I had wanted Scotch, Sam’s didn’t have either of my favorite blends, Grant’s and Famous Grouse. It had one single malt. It did have Plymouth gin, an old brand recently brought back, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, And it did have the Mondavi Pinot Noir, a red wine from a popular label, that was No. 1 in the Journal just last week.
The receipt — and likely all the receipts at this new Sam’s, is different. It is two-sided. There you go, half the amount of paper, and another help for the environment.
Is it a lot cheaper? No, but it’s some cheaper. Wednesday I went to our usual shop on College Avenue. Here is a price-by-price breakdown.
- Bottle — Sam’s — Our Friendly Shop
- Mondavi Pinot — $7.13 — $8.73
- Fonseca 27 Port — $14.46 — $19.99
- Kahlua — $22.82 — $25.69
- Plymouth Gin — $24.74 — $29.99
- Total (pretax) — $69.15 — $84.40
If you want to use Visa or American Express, if you want the local groups of stores not a multinational, if you want a more obscure vintage, if you want a clerk who might know something, if it’s more convenient, go to a non-Sam’s store (Sam’s accepting only cash, check, Discover and MasterCard). If you buy a few popular bottles of wine and a bottle or two of hard stuff twice a year, and you’re not that fussy about brands, go for price, I guess. I am not a one-person consumer advocate. I’m just curious.
Vermouth. On the trip to the local shop, I asked which of its four brands of dry vermouth was best for martinis. It stocked Martini & Rossi, Cinzano, Gallo and Noilly Prat. The main clerk said he didn’t know but M&R was the most popular. I bought the Noilly because recipes often call for French vermouth, of which it was the only one. Gallo’s from California and the others come from Italy. Sam’s only stocked the M&R. -30-
One reply on “What Kind of Vermouth?”
Sam’s Club liquor shop does have a cooler. It has white wine and sparking wine and 12-packs of some of the beers. The unrefrigerated beers tend to be in 24-unit cases.