Wine in the morning, and some breakfast at night
Ask any wine distributor or retailer and you will find that price is the critical factor in retail wine sales. Although wine enthusiasts like to think of themselves in complicated ways — favoring red versus white wine, old world versus new world, merlot versus pinot noir, fruit bomb versus barrique reserve — the dirty little secret of wine retailing is that price is the key to most wine buying decisions. When push comes to shove, buyers are really looking for an $8 wine or a $10 wine and and make their purchases within a relatively narrow price range, regardless of other factors.
The wine aisle in your grocery store is probably organized this way. (…) The wines you have come to buy are probably on the shelf just below your natural eye level, so that you cannot help but see those special occasion wines just above them (and the higher priced wines above them on the top shelf). Cheaper wines are down below, near the floor, so that you have to stoop down to choose them.
The physical act of taking the wine from the shelf mirrors the psychological choice you make — reach up for better (more expensive) wines, stoop down for the cheaper products. (…) Studies suggest that people establish a wine price comfort zone (and corresponding wine shelf) and stay there, moving up a rank for special occasions and down a shelf for parties and other higher-volume purchases.
{ American Association of Wine Economists | Continue reading }
