Working for Majestic Wine has been very exciting recently, not that it isn’t in the main!
Not only have Majestic Wine changed their minimum purchase in store to 6 bottles after trialling 6 bottles in a number of stores including my home town of Newcastle, it has also launched a brand new blog and Grape to Glass, a new-look, in-depth, seasonal wine guide and topped the week off by walking away with some amazing awards including Wine Chain of the Year, by Decanter’s judging panel, for the fourth year running, Decanter Reader Award for Best Large Wine Merchant for a second successive year and High Street Chain of the Year at the International Wine Challenge 2009 for the fifth consecutive year! So all in all a pretty busy week!
The new minimum purchase has been a great success creating positive feedback from customers. Majestic states, “Customers have told us that while 12 bottles are still brilliant when stocking up, 6 is a great minimum when you’re just popping in.” I can see why this would be the case. I may work for the company but sometimes trying to find places for 12 bottles when you still have a few left can be tough! No-one likes to wait till they have nothing left before placing an order online or popping to their nearest store so inevitably an overlap occurs and as most wine racks only hold 12 bottles this can cause problems. Buy a bigger wine rack you may say, but this is easier said than done, you then have to have the space to store the wine. Where as 6 bottles are a breeze to find a space for!
The blog has had a recent facelift too and now has its own space on the front page which keeps shoppers updated of the latest Majestic news and staff articles. The blog is written by members of staff who share the readers passion for wine, and the aim is to educate, enlighten and entertain the reader.
The launch of Grape to Glass has also been a very exciting time and is a great seasonal wine guide! It has some amazing articles including one by Majestic wines own Andy Lloyd, Manager of the Covent Garden store, Travel Tales. Andy is the winner of the 2008 Young Writer of the Year competition.
So overall it has been a great week so go and check out the new on-line side of things now at www.majestic.co.uk
Its all so sad. I was a big fan. I was a shareholder.
I wrote to Majestic some while ago - probably April 09 asking them not to throw away their “trustmark” by following the big supermarkets with outrageous claims for “normal” price.
I got a reply which completely missed the point & talked about duty increases & exchange rates - no reply would probably have been better.
It seems they ignored my letter based on a quick review of my favourite tipple Champagne.
The in depth study will come later but for now …………. How can the country’s biggest retailer of Champagne ( I’m guessing) claim a normal price of £37.99 for Moet & Chandon - this in an outlet with a minimum purchase requirement of 12 mixed bottles? How can they do this when no major retailer charges more than £30 a bottle not even Waitrose.
Of course if you buy 2 (as part of yr 12) you “save” £9.50 a bottle netting it down to £28.49 which is actually £1.04 a bottle more than Tesco direct - minimum order 6 with free delivery & Clubcard points.Majestic’s discount price is about the average normal price across JS, Tesco, Asda & Waitrose - so much for bulk buying.