Demystifying the TJ's wine shelf

Wine has been my favorite drink since the ripe (sry) age of 12, yet with 16 years of practice under my belt I still find myself standing in front of the same Trader Joe’s wine shelf every Sunday night in total disarray - until I either pull out Shruthi’s <$10 TJ’s wine guide or settle on blowing my meager weekly budget on a trustworthy Decoy [fill in the blank varietal].

My first hope is that this course will help me demystify the sea of fancy sounding names and logos in front of me each week without the crutch of a spreadsheet. In that sense, wine marketing is my #1 curiosity.

A company I worked closely with prior to school is one of only two providers of honey to Trader Joe’s. Each company has 2-3 SKUs on the honey shelf across the whole US, and the consumer either picks the golden teddy bear for $3.99 or the glass jar for $6.99. It’s simple. Wine is not. Each bottle is shaped almost identically; there are seemingly infinite brands and SKUs; price is often the leading measure of quality for consumers; etc. I want to understand how it all works.

I also like how the course refers to itself as a capstone. Given my lack of marketing talent, I will likely find myself in a job in finance, supply chain, or ops after school. The wine industry is a very interesting study in each of these areas, and it happens to also be regulated by archaic state and local laws – very similar to the industry I hope to end up in – energy & electricity.