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Talk of the bay

Key to success for Total Wine and More's Tampa store: options

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published September 5, 2005

The zeitgeist at Florida's largest wine store is captured by the lineup of supermarket shopping carts and eight checkout counters.

"The shopping cart is central to our whole concept," said David Trone, chief executive and co-owner of Total Wine and More, a chain of 37 wine superstores, based in Potomac, Md. "We draw traffic from up to 15 miles away by pricing the 300 top selling items - the Bud Lite, the Kendall Jacksons, the Korbels - at just a little above cost. Then we train our people to actively suggest other brands that might be a better choice."

The average customer drops $47 a trip filling their cart.

"It's the best selection I've seen," said Tom Riley, a Feather Sound retiree wheeling a cart full of tequila, vodka, wine and six cases of beer. "Only ABC (Fine Wine and Spirits) comes close."

Total Wine's first Florida store opened last week in a remodeled Rooms to Go at 1720 N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. At 17,600 square feet, it's half as big as the chain's biggest stores in Washington, D.C. But it, too, is stocked with 8,000 types of wine, 2,000 types of spirits and 1,000 types of beer. In addition, there are related gifts ranging from wine glass sets to 22 types of corkscrews.

The selection is staggering: 74 brands of vodka, 56 brands of Belgian beers, 93 types of wine from Argentina. The average store sells keg beer regularly enough (100 kegs a week) that customers don't have to special order it.

Trone, who co-founded the chain with his brother Robert in 1991, chose Tampa Bay for the Florida entry for many reasons. He thought local pricing - Total Wines prices its beer and wine below supermarkets - was high enough to create an opening. He found South Florida too large and complicated to sort out. He didn't want to get right in the face of ABC Wine and Spirits, a bigger company, which is based in Orlando.

"We'll see how it goes with this store, but this could be a one, two or three store market for us" he said.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 17:51:02]