Total Wine

Beer Talk
1

I know my handle is cheap, but Total Wine and More, across the eastern US, has been gorging on me lately. They used to be my ‘go to’ fave when collecting unrated mixed sixpacks. In the last couple of years their prices on singles have more than doubled!

Another pet peeve is their selection of singles has dramatically decreased by half.

My local mixed sixer source has only increased $ about 25-50% or less.

Just venting. Anybody else experiencing this with TW&M?

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I agree with your assessment. I seldom stop there now. Rather support local who will even break 6ers and 4pax down for me. They are similar prices, but buying local seems better than feeding the chain. I’ll throw in that their website is almost useless unless you are buy kegs or macros.

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It’s funny bc they are also being sued by the Feds
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/ftc-sues-retailer-total-wine-records-industry-pricing-probe-2023-10-23/

But I agree that Total Wine, on average, has gotten worse. I think it’s just a sign of the decline in beer sales. They have more old beer sitting around and it’s hard to keep buying every local brewery’s nonstop special releases when less people are buying and everything costs more.

Beer is headed in the wrong direction and this is just a sign of that.

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4

Trone dropped big bucks for his congressional bid. Maybe trying to recoup some after his loss?? :rofl:

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Great article, thanks!

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My local Total Wine must be immune from this (for now), because it’s always pretty solid for regional and mainstay imports over the last 5-6 years I’ve been going to it.

Prices may have gone up, but I feel like even the small local shops are also quite expensive these days.

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Just went to a Total Wine in Denver this weekend while visiting family and came home with 2 sixers. I use to come home from a TW&M with 4-5 sixers. All the beers I bought were “canned on” at least 6 months ago or more and none of them were under $5-6 a piece and we aren’t talking anything super special. A couple Prairie berliners, some local Colorado misc. stuff, etc. I used to love Total Wine but it’s a crap shoot now and I certainly don’t rush in like I used to.

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I use the Total Wines near my daughters when visiting the US (Laguna Hills) and I’ve never had any issues with ‘singles’ and was there three weeks ago. Prices have certainly increased but they have everywhere.

Being a Brit in California it’s always a joy for me to see the beer selection when hitting Total Wines, heavily biased towards California but that’s OK, I just look for ‘out of State beers’ and there are always plenty.

<*))))))><

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Yes, one of total wine’s highlights is they always have plenty of local brews from the vicinity where the store is located.