Nov 22 2008
How Closing Time May Lead to Closing
The Evil | Did People Hit Each Other for Pseudo-Free Booze in the 50’s?
Today I attended a wine tasting at a local produce market. Given that the bottles stayed under twenty dollars, the quality was pretty fantastic. What’s more, the only cost of the whole thing was a five dollar cover charge, which also netted you a thick, very solid wine glass with which to sample.
As a result everyone and their two favorite cousins descended on this place like a herd of, well, people. Paraphrasing what the company representative shared with a tentative consumer, “There are two recession-proof industries. One is entertainment, the other is alcohol,” and I saw today that he just may be right. There must have been five to eight hundred people through this place in an hour, in no more walking room total than you’d find in just the combined cashier areas at your local superstore.
That’s all well and good; I do not like crowds and I like drunk crowds less. I watched my company get forcefully jabbed and I myself actually had my hand slapped away despite me being decently tall and holding all my hands up away from everyone to save on space. It was a pleasant opportunity though, and gave us a good excuse to shop for fresh herbs.
The major issues are two-fold, though. There are many items we intended to purchase today, but with such crowds there was no feasible way to get access to the products. They made five dollars minus the cost of the glasses in an attempt to bring in business, but they couldn’t pull in any business past a cap because no one could reach anything and make it out alive.
Did they think people would get a positive impression and return? That’s a bit of a gamble. My relative, who received information about the event from me, knew just that it took place today and yesterday. How are they to know if it happens with any regularity? She actually remarked that if she was ever going to consider returning, she might be dissuaded simply by the fact that “today might be ones of those days where they’re doing the wine tasting.”
The second fold is far simpler. Don’t let kids in, or if you will not or cannot limit access, encourage people not to bring them. I’m not a big person but I’m obvious, and were it not for my relative lankiness I might not have even gotten the moving-around part accomplished. Forget the concerns about alcohol. I barely considered it. Any kid at the age I saw in there today, 8-12ish, is going to get trampled. Absolutely destroyed. It’s only learning if you stop the second time from happening after you learn from the first.
