The Wisdom of the Crowd: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Wines Won 39 Medals in the L.A. International Wine Competition; Will it Motivate Your Purchase?

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's marketing and public relations people announced via a press release today that the 175-store fresh food and grocery chain has won 39 medals at the 72nd annual Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition for a variety of its proprietary brand wines.

The annual wine and spirits competition is part of the Los Angeles County Fair, which takes place September 3-October 2 this year. An olive oil tasting and judging is also conducted in conjunction with the annual wine competition.

The wine competition judging took place in May. The competition's officials announced the winners June 7.

Among the wines Fresh & Easy won medals for (18 out of the 39 medals) were its new line of proprietary or private brand California wines, which we wrote about in this March 8, 2011 story: Tesco's Fresh & Easy ♥'s California With 27 New Varieties of Proprietary Brand Wines From the Golden State. The new California wines were introduced in the stores in March.

You can see which Fresh & Easy wine brands and varieties won medals here, along with viewing all of the award-winning wine brands and varieties from others. The competition also has a Facebook page here.

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is one of just a few food and grocery retailers that enter its private or proprietary brand wines in this and other competitions.

The pioneering grocer in doing so is another Southern California-based chain - Trader Joe's - which has been entering its various private brand wines in the Los Angeles and other competitions, often winning first place in on or more varietal categories, for many years.

It's important to note, however, that not many U.S. grocery and mass merchandise chains offer a moderate-to-extensive assortment of private brand wines (many have a value brand though), although that's beginning to change. As such, there's not much in the way of proprietary brand wine for the majority of grocers to enter in these competitions at present, even if they wanted to.

Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy followed Trader Joe's lead in entering various wine competitions, starting in 2007, and has to date won 275 medals overall.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also promotes wine regularly in its 175 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona and attempts to use the category, particularly its private brand wines, as a leader in terms of hoping it is a lure to bring shoppers into its stores.

We've written extensively about the wine category at Tesco's Fresh & Easy (and other grocers), including its participation in various wine competitions, along with merchandising, marketing and promotional aspects.

[You can read our stories by clicking on the following links: Fresh and Easy proprietary wines, Fresh and Easy wine, wine awards, wine merchandising, California wine competitions, wine awards, Fresh Easy wine category review, The Big Kahuna brand wine, wine marketing, wine promotions, liquor wine beer categories, alcoholic beverage sales-merchandising, wine retailing, Charles Shaw Wines, Mike Samii, Trader Joe's, Robert Parker, Beverages and More.]

As we noted earlier, the majority of U.S. food retailers don't offer much in the way of private brand wines.

Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy have the most extensive proprietary wine programs we're aware of among U.S. grocers and mass merchandise chains, although as noted numerous big chains like Costco, Walmart and even regional grocers like Save Mart Supermarkets in California offer a value-based (think Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck) proprietary brand wine. Fresh & Easy's value brand is called the The Big Kahuna.

Fresh  Easy's parent, United Kingdom-based Tesco, has long had a proprietary brand wine program in operation and offers numerous own brand varieties in its stores in the UK particularly, but also at its stores elsewhere in Europe and in Asia.

What interests us about these wine competitions as they pertain to grocers like Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Trader Joe's and others, is if winning medals at the events has any influence on shopper purchases of the winning wines in the stores.

This question is important because the primary reason wine-makers and marketers enter their wines in competitions is to sell more of it. Secondarily is the prestige of winning - or what some folks (not us of course)  might even call the "snob appeal factor."

The Wisdom of the Crowd: Reader Questions

Since Fresh & Easy Buzz has some of the smartest and most-inquisitive readers on the planet, we thought we would put the question to you.

So here's the question: Does a wine brand/variety winning a medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze and the like) at a well-known wine competition influence your decision to purchase it?

Further, will you be motivated to try and buy any of the 39 Fresh & Easy proprietary brand wines - there will be signs on the wines at the shelf in the stores designating them as "medal winners" and you can see the various wines from Fresh & Easy that won here - because a given wine won a medal at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition?

Share your response and opinion with your fellow readers using  the "comments" link below. Just click it and tell us what you think.

Competitive Retailer Wine Category Report: First Person Singular - 'How I Sold 37 Bottles of Wine in 45 Minutes at Trader Joe's'

The Trader Joe's store in New York City's Palladium building in Manhattan has two entrances on the same street. The entrance pictured above, which leads directly into the store's wine department, is designated as Trader Joe's Wine Shop. The other entrace, which is just a few feet down the way and leads into the store's main grocery section, has traditional Trader Joe's grocery market signage. The Manhattan Trader Joe's, which opened in 2006, offers wine delivery to homes and businesses. The Manhattan store also is the first, and one of just a few, Trader Joe's markets that offer home wine delivery.

From the Fresh & Easy Buzz Editor's Desk: Specialty grocer Trader Joe's, which currently operates about 312 stores located throughout the United States, has become one of the premier wine retailers of any format in the country.

The grocer's $1.99 a bottle ($2.99 in some states) Charles Shaw proprietary-blend California wines, called "Two Buck Chuck" for short, took the U.S. wine consuming public and the wine industry by storm when they were introduced in the stores over a decade ago.

The Charles Shaw wines are produced for Trader Joe's by Ceres, California-based Bronco Wine Company.

The wines took the wine industry by storm again in 2007 when Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Chardonnay, which sells for $1.99 a bottle in California where the grocery chain is headquartered, won the grand prize medal in the prestigious California State Fair Wine Competition, beating out wines that retail for ten times the price for the Double- Gold Medal.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy followed Trader Joe's lead in the $1.99 a bottle ($1.99 in California, $2.99 in Nevada and Arizona) wine segment. It sells an Australian proprietary-blended wine, "Big Kahuna" brand, for the same prices in its Fresh & Easy grocery markets in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

Trader Joe's stores sell lots of other brands and varieties of wines besides "Two Buck Chuck," which comes in numerous varieties. And the stores sell lots of wine in general.

Trader Joe's sells this high volume of wine in its stores by merely putting it on the shelf (self service), pricing it right and regularly featuring various varieties in off-shelf displays with colorful signage.

Of course, the grocer is able to do this because it has built a strong brand as a retailer that offers quality wines at discount prices over a multi-year period of time. The retailer also puts lots of effort into the wine category.

But it appears with the help of a wine and food specialist, Mike Samii, conducting a professional experiment, a Trader Joe's grocery market in San Diego, California sold even more wine, in a very short period of time, than the chain's already strong reputation for wine sales would otherwise even permit. In fact, we think it might be a world record of bottles of wine sold in a single store in a 45 minute period of time.

You can read the first-person account by chef and wine specialist Mike Samii about how he sold 37 bottles of wine in 45 minutes at a San Diego Trader Joe's store by just walking and talking to shoppers in the store. It's published below.

We think Mike Samii's experiment suggests having store employees who have wine knowledge helps increase wine sales. It's also a strong argument for those supermarkets that employee wine experts or wine stewards in-store. And in Mike Samii's case, he might want to hire himself out to wine retailers at a day rate.

Mike Samii's first person piece:

How I sold 37 bottles of wine in 45 minutes at Trader Joe's
By Mike Samii
Special to Fresh & Easy Buzz

My name is Mike Samii, and I am a Cordon Blue Chef. I have an extensive background in gastronomy and wine.

I shop at Trader Joe's regularly, and I always see people going up and down the aisles looking for a bottle of wine and not knowing what wine to take home. Frankly with the many choices, available, and not knowing what’s what, it is not always easy to choose the right wine.

So I decided to do an experiment one day. One Saturday this last summer, I walked in to one of the Trader Joe's stores in San Diego, California with a clipboard in my hand, pretending that I am writing down a list of wines I like to get for an event. I walked up to every customer that came to the wine section and started looking at the wines for a minute or two, and told them, without introduction, about how good certain wines were in the section and how they tasted.

And, except for a few of the customers, most of them looked at me like I was a god sent. Almost, everyone of them grabbed a bottle or two of the wines I suggested, and thanked me for it. One guy even took 9 bottles of wine and filled up his hand basket. Keeping track of how many bottles people took, my tally read 37 after 45 minutes. I was so gratified to be able to make a difference in some people’s lives by making them a little easier

[Fresh & Easy Buzz Editor's Note: Mike Samii is a Washington state-based chef, wine expert and consultant. For more information about Mike Samii you can go to: www.tastefullyamerican.com , or call him at 425-299-5819.]

Resources:

Related posts from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

Trader Joe's:

>July 22, 2008: Obituary: Innovative Trader Joe's Head Wine Buyer and Popularizer of Value Wines Robert Berning; 73

>March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

>July 9, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

>September 22, 2008: Monday, September 22, 2008: Fresh & Easy Buzz Strategy Session: Trader Joe's and the Key to Enlightenment?

>November 6, 2008: Serendipitous Marketing & Cooking With the Trader: Trader Joe's Hits A Marketing Home Run Without Doing A Thing

Tesco's Fresh & Easy:

>November 11, 2008: Wine Category Report: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Kicks Off New Merchandising and Promotional Efforts Designed to Grow Wine Category Sales

>October 27, 2008: Category Management Report: Fresh & Easy Conducting Wine Category Review and SKU Rationalization; We Offer Some Analysis

>October 27, 2008: Southern California Market Report: Beverages & More to Join Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy to Form Manhattan Beach Food and Beverage Retailing Triangle

>March 22, 2008: In Vino Veritas: No Whining About This 'Parker-Point' Rating for a Fresh & Easy Proprietary Spanish Wine

>April 25, 2008: April 25, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch A Marketing-Oriented, Brand-Building Consumer Public Relations Campaign For its Store Brand Products and its Wines

>April 30, 2009: April 30, 2008: Raising Arizona and Getting Local in the Neighborhood: State's First 100% Locally-Produced Wine Offers Win-Win for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Arizona Stores

>July 14, 2008: Breaking News & Analysis: CA Assemblyman Introduces 'Tesco Fresh & Easy Law' to Ban Stores With Self-Checkout-Only From Selling Alcoholic Beverages

In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced today its specialty-blended wines have won 63 awards in various wine competitions over the last six months.

Simon Uwins, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA marketing director, said over half of the retailer's 65 varieties of proprietary blended wines have won awards in the competitions the grocer has entered its wines in.

"Most award winning wines are priced under $10, including two which retail for only $1.99 in California and $2.99 in Arizona and Nevada." Uwins said.

You can read a selected list of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market proprietary blended wines that have won wine competition awards in this press release issued by the grocery chain today.

Using wines to help build the Fresh & Easy retail brand

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is entering its special-blend wines in as many wine competitions as it can as a way to create an image of offering quality wines at reasonable prices for its small-format, combination basic grocery and fresh foods grocery markets. The idea is to create fame and a consumer following around the proprietary-blended, value-priced wines as one element of the many, as a way to draw customers into the stores and keep them there.

This is very much the model Trader Joe's has used to build its reputation as a grocer which offers quality wines at reasonable prices.

For example, as we reported in this March 4 piece, "In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold," both Trader Joe's and Tesco's Fresh & Easy entered a number of their respective proprietary-blended wines in the last California State Fair Wine Competition, considered by most to be the most prestigious wine judging competition in the U.S., and one of the top such events in the international world of wine.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market won two Silver Medals and numerous Bronze Medals for a number of its specially-blended wines at the judging, which was a strong showing, particularly since it was the retailer's first time participating in the competition with its wines.

However, Trader Joe's took first place, winning a Double-Gold Medal, in the Chardonnay varietal category, with its $1.99 per-bottle Charles Shaw Chardonnay, more commonly called "Two Buck Chuck."

Winning doesn't get any bigger in a California State Fair Wine Competition category than getting a Double-Gold Medal, which means in this case Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" Chardonnay beat out other Chardonnay brands costing as much as 20-times more than the grocery chain's discount priced Charles Shaw proprietary wine.

F&E, TJ's will face off in California State Fair wine competition

This year's version of the prestigious California State Fair Wine Competition begins later this month. The tastings and judging last until early September. The winners are then announced sometime after that.

Both Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy are entering wines in the State Fair competition this year. It should be interesting to see how both retailers do in the competition. Both did well last year, despite going up against some very premium wineries, along with some very expensive bottles of wine in various categories.

"Fresh & Easy works directly with a Master of Wine to develop most of the company's 65 specially selected wines. Masters of Wine are highly regarded throughout the industry as extensively trained wine experts, and there are only 251 in the world," according to Mr. Uwins.

You can learn more about the Master of Wine designation here.

Tesco knows wine

United Kingdom-based Tesco PLC, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA, is one of the top global wine retailers, known for its innovation and its creation of proprietary store brand wines using various brand names.

Tesco was one of the first retailers to popularize Australian wines, for example, including the now popular Shiraz varietal from that country. In fact, Tesco Fresh & Easy's "The Big Kuhuna" value wine (it's $1.99 a bottle in California and $2.99 in Nevada and Arizona) is Australian wine. By contrast, Trader Joe's same-priced Charles Shaw value wines are California wines.

A wine even Robert Parker likes

Perhaps Fresh & Easy's most critically acclaimed proprietary-blended wine to date is its Reflexion Reserva Rioja (often just called Rioja), from Spain. It's a 2003 vintage from the Bodegas Palacio region. Fresh & Easy grocery stores sell the wine for $9.99 a bottle.

The wine received 10 "Parker Points" from wine guru Robert Parker on his Parker scale. A perfect "Parker Point" score is 100. Parker, who's arguably the most influential wine judge and writer in the world, doesn't give out 90's easily. That the $10 bottle of Fresh & Easy's Spanish Rioja received a 90 from the parsimonious Parker is an achievement.

End Game: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and Wine: Recent Stories From Fresh & Easy Buzz:

March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

March 22, 2008: In Vino Veritas: No Whining About This 'Parker-Point' Rating for a Fresh & Easy Proprietary Spanish Wine

April 25, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch A Marketing-Oriented, Brand-Building Consumer Public Relations Campaign For its Store Brand Products and its Wines

April 30, 2008: Raising Arizona and Getting Local in the Neighborhood: State's First 100% Locally-Produced Wine Offers Win-Win for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Arizona Stores

In Vino Veritas: No Whining About This 'Parker-Point' Rating for a Fresh & Easy Proprietary Spanish Wine

the Wine Advocate publication has given one of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's exclusive or proprietary wines 90 "Parker Points," the self-named wine rating scale created by Robert Parker, who's arguably the most influential wine expert in the world. A perfect Parker score would by 100 points, which is seldom if ever given.

The wine in question is a Spanish wine called Reflexion Reserva Rioja (often just called Rioja). It's a 2003 vintage from the Bodegas Palacio region. Fresh & Easy grocery stores sell the wine for $9.99 a bottle.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chose the Spanish wine, along with 60 other exclusive or proprietary wines, to launch in its stores when the small-format combined basic grocery and fresh and specialty foods (and beverages) markets opened last November, according to wine buyer Karen Fletcher. Fletcher says she and Fresh & Easy are working hard to find and bring shoppers new, exciting and affordable wines from throughout the globe. The stores currently merchandise about 100 brands of wines, according to Ms. Fletcher.

Tesco, the United Kingdom-based parent company of Fresh & Easy, is noted in the UK and around the world for its wine buying expertise. It's one of that country's largest, and in the opinion of many experts, finest wine retailers. It's buyers were one of the first in the world to popularize Australian wines for example. Tesco also is one of the world's highest-volume sellers of quality wines which allows the retailer to obtain favorable prices from vintners and wine brokers throughout the world.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would be smart to tap into as much of that corporate expertise and buying power as it can for its 10,000 square foot convenience-oriented grocery markets in the U.S. Developing the Fresh & Easy stores into a well-known retail brand, where consumers can find unique, high-quality yet reasonably-priced wines, could be one way for the grocer to get more customers into its stores' doors.

After all, small-format specialty grocer Trader Joe's generated lots of new customer trail when it introduced its proprietary line of high-quality Charles Shaw brand $1.99 a bottle wines which usually are referred to as "Two Buck Chuck," for example. The wines have strong brand equity and lots of repeat sales.

Seven of Fresh & Easy's proprietary wines recently won awards (two silver and five bronze medals) at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, which is the largest judging of American wines in the U.S., and at the California State Fair Wine Competition, which is viewed internationally as one of the world's premiere wine competitions. [Read our March 4 piece about both of these wine competitions and Fresh & Easy's wines here.]

For those not aware, Mr. Parker's high-point ratings can be a source of soaring wine sales for a brand and variety of wine. However, when Mr. Parker pans a wine, his opinion often has the opposite effect, at times serving as the catalyst for the wine's being sold to the salvage wine retail merchants of the world, where it's then discounted by 50% for clearance at retail. Mr. Parker can 'giveth,' but Mr. Parker also can 'taketh' away, is always a prudent stance in wine marketing.