Price Check: 2005 Telmo Rodriguez Dehesa Gago Toro
Dehesa Gago Toro, Price Check, Telmo Rodriguez, Whole Foods
We carry this wine, a 100% Tempranillo from Telmo Rodriguez, a hot winemaker from Spain (hot in both his looks and mad skills with the vino). We used to sell the Dehesa Gago for $13.99, but were lucky enough to get some on close-out from the old distributor who lost the wine to a competitor. We lowered our price accordingly, to $12.99 a bottle, since we had some for the old price and some for the reduced rate, and figured an average dollar cost would be fair to us, fair to the consumer.
Imagine our shock today when we strolled into Whole Foods and saw a pallet of the 2005 wine, purchased on close-out undoubtedly, with the price marked at $15.99? We’re pretty sure they bought the last 72 cases the distributor showed in inventory a couple weeks ago, and proceeded to mark up the wine about 250% from the deeply discounted close-out price, astronomically higher than average retail mark-up.
Which gave us the idea for a new column, “Price Check”. What does the same wine cost at various retailers, from downscale grocery chains, to local wine specialty stores, to online retailers? To be fair, we won’t always select wines for which we have the lowest price. Lord knows, we aren’t a discounter though we do try to be fair.
First up, the Dehasa Gago Toro. This is probably an oddball selection in that it doesn’t appear to be available at too many locations, in the 2005 or 2006 vintage.
Priced from low to high:
Winecommune (online auction site) : $4.50 (current auction price, likely to increase before close of lot)
Wines Anywhere (online retailer, NJ): $12.99 or $11.69 as part of a mixed case
domaine547 (online retailer, LA): $12.99 with free shipping in local area
Salt Creek Wine Company (brick and mortar with online presence, Laguna Niguel): $12.99
Whole Foods (3rd/Fairfax location in LA): $15.99
While we most definitely applaud Whole Foods for carrying what we think is a very worthy wine, one that their customers will benefit from being exposed to, we certainly don’t like the practice of price gouging.
The irony is that we’d probably be complaining if they were undercutting us by the same percentage as they’re overselling us for. And we should be happy to be able to say we offer a better value, even with shipping costs factored in, to our customers.
But in the end we think that the overcharging (more than 20% higher than all other retailers with the same product, retailers who probably did not buy the wine on close-out but at regular distributor set pricing) is a real disservice to the overall project of fostering wine drinking in this country, as an everyday part of life. Whole Foods is a store that has an opportunity to really nurture wine culture in the States, to encourage people to integrate wine into their daily routine; unfair pricing practices are not going to help with this. People are already suspicious of wine being elitist, and overcharging is just another facet of the intimidation factor.
Just give us a good product at a fair price. Ultimately, people will be less intimidated by wine and they will branch out, try different regions and varietals, and drink wine more frequently. And they’ll buy wine from more places, whether it’s direct from the winery, grocery store, specialty store or online retailer. We’ll all benefit.
Please feel free to weigh in with your opinions. Maybe we’re being too nit-picky. And if you have any items you’d like us to “price check”, please let us know and we’ll be happy to profile them.
5 Responses to “Price Check: 2005 Telmo Rodriguez Dehesa Gago Toro”
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January 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
It certainly pays to shop around different prices on wine. Some stores just seem to charge higher prices than others. Though sometimes the higher prices are only on certain wines. B.J.’s Wholesale and Costco are behemoths that use their power to sell wine cheaply. Whole Foods certainly has that power too, though apparently they have used it for ill rather than good.
In MA, Whole Foods is not a big player as only 3 of their stores can sell wine. No chain in MA can have more than 3 stores that sell alcohol.
In my town, there are 4 stores that sell wine. Of the four, one store consistently has the lowest prices. I would say an average of 20% less. It is also the largest store of the four, with a good selection. The other 3 stores really don’t compete, in either price or selection. Where did these people learn about business?
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Isn’t this why we call the place “Whole Paycheck”?
While an occasional case stack at WF offers a good deal, I practically never buy wine there.
For myself, I’m always surprised at the variations in prices of champagnes and other sparkling wines. A bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte will range from $21 to $35 — wtf?
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
I’m with the Scamp. I avoid purchasing wine at Whole Paycheck that I know that I can buy elsewhere. Sometimes, they have something no one else has and I cave. But otherwise? I believe we are all paying for the new Pasadena branch–and having just been there, all I can say is we’ll be paying for it for some time!
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I don’t particularly try to buy wine at whole paycheck probably b/c, if I go there, I end up buying pricey cheeses and then.. there goes the paycheck. But glad to see you are offering a fair price
I find this variable wine pricing pretty frustrating in general. In Oregon, Argyle’s tasting room is offering their wines to future loyal customers at a huge markup compared to the safeway 10 mins away or other local wine shops. I found this with Erath too. I was very disappointed. For two large brands, there’s no excuse for lack of local price awareness.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I third Scamp. Whole Paycheck is just setting the top line price in their standard way - about 20% higher than anywhere else esp. for things that are hard to find (try buying grassfed beef - which is all I eat - and you’ll understand why their called Whole Paycheck).
It doesn’t matter what they bought it at. People expect to pay more at WF and are used to it. Market rate is market rate regardless of what you buy it for. If your policy is “Premium pricing” and your brand can support it, then guess what - we live in America and unless you’re the Chinese Gov’t trying to buy Unocal’s oil processing capacity, there is nothing stopping them from commanding the premium on the market rate.