So how is the system working? Can we see the results so we know that it is an honest system? I have purchased quite a bit on the WRC and I have not received any emails - didn't even get the chance to buy a bottle of pretty common stuff the last go round. Has not been very rewarding for me yet.
Our distributors will not allow us to show how many bottles of allocated product we receive or we risk losing our allocation next time. Please email me at paul@wineandcheeseplace.com and I can check your account and make sure everything is working correctly and make sure something is not messed up.
Same thing has happened to me....I have easily spent several hundreds of dollars over the last few months, but don't get any of the special release emails. I don't really have any faith in the WRC.
Report was run and emails sent. Again please send me an email paul@wineandcheeseplace.com and I can check it out for you. I will respond to the email and let you know.
When you say the report was run, what does that mean? The description of the WRC says it is a weighted raffle based on how much money was spent at your stores. So for every dollar I spend, do I get one "ticket" or one "chance" to have my name drawn? Or do you just run a report and the top spenders get the limited releases? Are there not legalities involved here with this "raffle" where you have to show how the winners were drawn?
Depending on how much we get, I run a report on the top 100, 200 or 300. And do a weighted raffle based on those reports. So the person that was 100, 200, or 300 gets 1 ticket and that is the value of a lottery ticket.
The WRC description says the more you spend the better your chances, so it leaves the impression that if someone spends one dollar they still have a small chance of being drawn. There is nothing stating that only the top 100-300 spenders are the only ones that will have a "final" chance at the allocated bottles.
On the original post I had "will be a weighted raffle. The more you spend the better chance you will have as you will get more raffle tickets for each release. Not sure the exact details yet, but this is the plan."
Until we started it, we were not exactly sure how it would go. In the beginning, I sent emails to the full list. After we got over 1000 members, it became impossible to do the whole list. I had put in the emails about the change and I believe in some of the comments on the blog posts about the change, but never changed the original post. I will change the the original post to avoid the confusion. We are trying to be as fair as possible and are adjusting as need be. I always like to emphasize there is NOT a lot of these bottles, so the chances are still on the slim side. Having the WRC does not make it easier for us to release these, it makes it much harder and much more time consuming. We just feel it is more fair.
Unfortunately this is the nature of how these rewards programs work. Several stores in town, as well as other big cities (binny's in chicago for example) operate these kinds of programs. The little guy gets squashed out and feels cheated. There is no way around it. I used to get lots of the stuff I was looking for just by stopping @ TWCP every few days and getting lucky. I put in a lot of work!
I sincerely wish, Paul, that you would run this like the beer program. That you released products based upon support. For example, the Elliott select went to the top 4 roses supporters. And Blantons, stagg Jr, & eagle rare to the buffalo trace guys, beam (knob 2001 & bookers rye) to beam supporters, 1792 to 1792 supporters, old scout to OS, etc.
Right now the person spending big money on wine, bud light, cheese, & handles of old crow for their weekly parties is getting Elliott select, eagle rare, Weller,etc, and might never purchase good whiskey on a regular basis.
Good thing the rare 2nd shift, 4 HANDS, & Perennial beer is going to people who deserve it, buy supporting those breweries on a regular basis, and I commend TWCP for this.
Not looking to turn this blog into another negative wrc slam. Just asking you Paul, please consider this. I miss shopping @ twcp, but it's just not worth the 18 mile drive to get my daily drinker 4R small batch, when the tiny store near my house has it. Sure they won't get Elliotts limited edition, but I'm saving a lot of money on gas in my truck these days...
Looking forward to your oesk & obsq barrels though. I'll drive into town for those if they get sold to the public... Please buy some more of these different recipes as well. I want to collect all ten! Seems like twcp always buys obsv & oesv. Thanks. Dave
Thank you for the comment. That is definitely something we have considered and will hopefully be able to do at some point. The Four Roses would be possible because I can base it on products that have "Four Roses" in the name. Others would be hard because I cannot get a report of Jim Beam Products or Sazerac products that people have bought. I would have to figure out a way to get a report like that out of the system. I am sure it is possible, but that is the reason we did not use this system in the beginning. At this point, I want to get through to the Pappy Van Winkle release in the fall and then evaluate the system and make changes for next year. I am not opposed to change for the better. We will keep trying to make it better.
Dave, One more thing, many of the medium rare stuff still makes the shelf. I just do not post it anymore. After the last raffle, I saved half of the Weller, Eagle Rare, and Blantons and all 4 stores ended up with some on the shelf. Those items will NOT go via the WRC everytime, just periodically (most times it will be sold on the shelf). They will also not be on the shelf right when they are released, because we know that hoarders start running around town as soon as one shop posts that they are in stock. People know that all retailers get them at the same time. We hold them back and put them out weeks later. Again, it will not be posted, we just quietly put a bottle or two on the shelf. Some Col Taylor has been on the shelf in the past few weeks and even a few bottles of Elmer T Lee. We still want to reward people that come in the shop.
So I got a bottle in the last reward drawing and it was one of my top picks. I've spent quite a bit of money since then. Since I got a bottle last time does that take me out of this one? I'd like to see more people get something special. I know only 8000 bottles were released per four roses website. I'm thinking TWCP would be lucky to get a case. I would suggest that people try to keep spending and take what u can get. Then maybe trade a beer for a whiskey. If you get to know customers then you have a better chance to try it. Also how about doing some tasting more often. Can you as a business have a whiskey club?
No each raffle is independent. The 4 Roses Raffle was much smaller than the last one. We could do some sort of Whiskey sharing club. According to the bottles there were 10,224 produced. Each year we save some rare whiskey including a few Pappy to put on tasting. We limit it to 24 people and still an issue because people get upset that they cannot get into the tasting. Just and endless cycle.
We had some people that did not want the Four Roses Elliot - so next week we will offer those at to the WRC top Four Roses supporters as suggested by Dave. It is a good idea and we will try to do more this way if possible.
20 comments:
Any word on your other private barrels arriving?
I think you mentioned September a few months back.
That's great!!! Can't wait!
We were told September, so hopefully soon.
I'll be waiting in expectation tomorrow. :-)
So how is the system working? Can we see the results so we know that it is an honest system? I have purchased quite a bit on the WRC and I have not received any emails - didn't even get the chance to buy a bottle of pretty common stuff the last go round. Has not been very rewarding for me yet.
Our distributors will not allow us to show how many bottles of allocated product we receive or we risk losing our allocation next time.
Please email me at paul@wineandcheeseplace.com and I can check your account and make sure everything is working correctly and make sure something is not messed up.
Have you ran the numbers?
Same thing has happened to me....I have easily spent several hundreds of dollars over the last few months, but don't get any of the special release emails. I don't really have any faith in the WRC.
Report was run and emails sent.
Again please send me an email paul@wineandcheeseplace.com and I can check it out for you. I will respond to the email and let you know.
I have not gotten any emails paul@wineandcheeseplace.com
I want to make sure the system is working correctly and people are not being left off.
When you say the report was run, what does that mean? The description of the WRC says it is a weighted raffle based on how much money was spent at your stores. So for every dollar I spend, do I get one "ticket" or one "chance" to have my name drawn? Or do you just run a report and the top spenders get the limited releases? Are there not legalities involved here with this "raffle" where you have to show how the winners were drawn?
Depending on how much we get, I run a report on the top 100, 200 or 300. And do a weighted raffle based on those reports. So the person that was 100, 200, or 300 gets 1 ticket and that is the value of a lottery ticket.
The WRC description says the more you spend the better your chances, so it leaves the impression that if someone spends one dollar they still have a small chance of being drawn. There is nothing stating that only the top 100-300 spenders are the only ones that will have a "final" chance at the allocated bottles.
On the original post I had "will be a weighted raffle. The more you spend the better chance you will have as you will get more raffle tickets for each release. Not sure the exact details yet, but this is the plan."
Until we started it, we were not exactly sure how it would go. In the beginning, I sent emails to the full list. After we got over 1000 members, it became impossible to do the whole list. I had put in the emails about the change and I believe in some of the comments on the blog posts about the change, but never changed the original post. I will change the the original post to avoid the confusion. We are trying to be as fair as possible and are adjusting as need be. I always like to emphasize there is NOT a lot of these bottles, so the chances are still on the slim side. Having the WRC does not make it easier for us to release these, it makes it much harder and much more time consuming. We just feel it is more fair.
Unfortunately this is the nature of how these rewards programs work. Several stores in town, as well as other big cities (binny's in chicago for example) operate these kinds of programs.
The little guy gets squashed out and feels cheated. There is no way around it.
I used to get lots of the stuff I was looking for just by stopping @ TWCP every few days and getting lucky. I put in a lot of work!
I sincerely wish, Paul, that you would run this like the beer program.
That you released products based upon support.
For example, the Elliott select went to the top 4 roses supporters.
And Blantons, stagg Jr, & eagle rare to the buffalo trace guys, beam (knob 2001 & bookers rye) to beam supporters, 1792 to 1792 supporters, old scout to OS, etc.
Right now the person spending big money on wine, bud light, cheese, & handles of old crow for their weekly parties is getting Elliott select, eagle rare, Weller,etc, and might never purchase good whiskey on a regular basis.
Good thing the rare 2nd shift, 4 HANDS, & Perennial beer is going to people who deserve it, buy supporting those breweries on a regular basis, and I commend TWCP for this.
Not looking to turn this blog into another negative wrc slam. Just asking you Paul, please consider this.
I miss shopping @ twcp, but it's just not worth the 18 mile drive to get my daily drinker 4R small batch, when the tiny store near my house has it. Sure they won't get Elliotts limited edition, but I'm saving a lot of money on gas in my truck these days...
Looking forward to your oesk & obsq barrels though. I'll drive into town for those if they get sold to the public...
Please buy some more of these different recipes as well. I want to collect all ten! Seems like twcp always buys obsv & oesv.
Thanks.
Dave
Thank you for the comment. That is definitely something we have considered and will hopefully be able to do at some point. The Four Roses would be possible because I can base it on products that have "Four Roses" in the name. Others would be hard because I cannot get a report of Jim Beam Products or Sazerac products that people have bought. I would have to figure out a way to get a report like that out of the system. I am sure it is possible, but that is the reason we did not use this system in the beginning. At this point, I want to get through to the Pappy Van Winkle release in the fall and then evaluate the system and make changes for next year. I am not opposed to change for the better. We will keep trying to make it better.
Dave,
One more thing, many of the medium rare stuff still makes the shelf. I just do not post it anymore. After the last raffle, I saved half of the Weller, Eagle Rare, and Blantons and all 4 stores ended up with some on the shelf. Those items will NOT go via the WRC everytime, just periodically (most times it will be sold on the shelf). They will also not be on the shelf right when they are released, because we know that hoarders start running around town as soon as one shop posts that they are in stock. People know that all retailers get them at the same time. We hold them back and put them out weeks later. Again, it will not be posted, we just quietly put a bottle or two on the shelf. Some Col Taylor has been on the shelf in the past few weeks and even a few bottles of Elmer T Lee. We still want to reward people that come in the shop.
So I got a bottle in the last reward drawing and it was one of my top picks. I've spent quite a bit of money since then. Since I got a bottle last time does that take me out of this one? I'd like to see more people get something special. I know only 8000 bottles were released per four roses website. I'm thinking TWCP would be lucky to get a case. I would suggest that people try to keep spending and take what u can get. Then maybe trade a beer for a whiskey. If you get to know customers then you have a better chance to try it.
Also how about doing some tasting more often. Can you as a business have a whiskey club?
No each raffle is independent. The 4 Roses Raffle was much smaller than the last one. We could do some sort of Whiskey sharing club. According to the bottles there were 10,224 produced.
Each year we save some rare whiskey including a few Pappy to put on tasting. We limit it to 24 people and still an issue because people get upset that they cannot get into the tasting. Just and endless cycle.
We had some people that did not want the Four Roses Elliot - so next week we will offer those at to the WRC top Four Roses supporters as suggested by Dave. It is a good idea and we will try to do more this way if possible.
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