A New Option for Wine Club Members

A New Option for Wine Club Members

In July 2014, we changed our wine club release schedule from eight 2 bottle releases each year to four 4 bottle releases. We also introduced "Tap Room Selections" into some of our wine club releases as a way to promote the expanded wine list we offer at the LaVelle Tap Room. These were a couple of big changes in the Wine Club format. We spent a lot of time and energy communicating them with our club members up front, and we have gotten even more feedback  from you since the change. I will talk about the Tap Room Selections in my next blog, but today I want to discuss the biggest single concern club members have expressed about the switch to four club shipments per year, i.e. the cost of the individual shipments.

While everyone understands that wine club membership is no more expensive on an annual basis, each individual shipment is, basically, double the cost it was before. As one club member put it to me, "My wife and I both work. We have pretty much the same amount of money coming in each month and we like to create our household budget accordingly. We like to know what our monthly expenses will be and we don't like surprises. For us, $100 charge every three months for a LaVelle Wine Club release is just large enough to be one of those surprises." I'm not going to soft pedal this. It is a real issue for a lot of folks and we have lost some club members because of it.

After kicking around ideas for dealing with this issue, we've come up with a potential solution. Beginning next year, right after the January release, we will offer our club members the option of monthly billing. In other words, we will take the annual cost of belonging to the LaVelle Wine Club and divide it into 12 monthly installments. If you choose this optional payment method, you can pay as you go and every time there's a wine club release your wine will already be paid for. No big charges; no big surprises.

Here’s an example of the cost in 2015. These numbers are based on the actual wines scheduled for release to the “All Wines” club, the largest segment of our wine club membership. The total cost of the four quarterly releases will be $384, or an average cost per shipment of $96.00. Broken down into 12 payments, that’s $32.00 per month. Obviously, our “Red Wines Only” club members will pay a little more than that, and the “Whites Wines Only” will pay a little less.

Micaela Stewart, our wine club manager, will be sending out a survey in the next few days to get your feedback on this monthly billing option. It's just two questions, and we mainly want to know if you a) prefer monthly billing, b) you prefer quarterly billing, or c) you are okay either way. We hope you will take a minute to let us know how you feel about the idea of monthly billing.
That's it for now. As always, I would just add that you are our most important customers and keeping you informed of our plans and getting your continuous feedback is what makes our business thrive.

Feel free to post your comments about the optional monthly billing and watch for that wine club survey.

Cheers!

Doug LaVelle

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