Bloodbath in Dallas

[StraightNoChaser]

timd and I are fairly well connected with liquor stores in the DFW area. Many managers know us by name and even have our phone numbers in their personal cell phones. It's thanks to these connections that we get to always get to hear the juicy drama as it unfolds.

Now, anyone who has ever spoken to a distributor rep knows that they aren't the sharpest tools in the box. In fact, it's a wonder that they get anything accomplished with their heads so far up their asses. Despite all the stories I've heard this latest morsel of news absolutely takes the cake.

RNDC, one of the two major distributors in Texas, in their inevitable infinite wisdom, accidentally shipped the entire North Texas off premise allocation of Pappy to Sigel's. And guess what? Sigel's does not want to give it back

I'm not sure what to make of this right now, I'm going to follow up and see where the story is heading, but I can assure you there are a lot of PO'd people at Goody Goody and Spec's.

[Bmac]

HOLY smokes! Is Sigel's selling any of it?

I just talked to the manager at Sepc's today and he said his shipment is on it's way. Guess it isn't O_O

Keep us posted!

[timd]

HOLY smokes! Is Sigel's selling any of it?

I just talked to the manager at Sepc's today and he said his shipment is on it's way. Guess it isn't O_O

Keep us posted!

My source said that it's not only gone to Sigel's alone - but to a single store!

Needless to say the other bigger retailers are pissed. My guy runs one of the bigger chain stores in town, and was just dumbfounded by this.

Of course, come Fall allocation, I'm guessing this will bite Sigel's in the butt - which is fine by me, since I prefer the VWFRR & BTAC stuff to the standard Pappys... so maybe my guy will get more than ususal!

FWIW: Specs has the ability to move things across counties by using their distributor to buy back from Houston/Austin/San Antonio stores and re-distribute to RDNC in Dallas, so they may still get some Pappy, but it won't be much - I'd guess 75% of Texas' Pappy goes to Houston alone...

[spinningrecords]

The right thing to do is to hold the product until the distributor makes arrangements to re-direct the allocations to the appropriate retailers. If it was me, I would suspend their future allocations indefinitely for anything less. The fact that everything went to one location makes the issue fairly easy to resolve.

So just out of courosity...exactly how much juice was in the entire allocation?

[theDon]

3 bottles........................

[mrviognier]

Sadly, things like this happen all the time...but it isn't the sales rep's fault. If anything, the VP of Spirits is to blame.

When highly-desirable/allocated products arrive at the distributor's warehouse, it's this person's responsibility to ensure that the entire inventory is placed on "hold" status, and can only be released for an order with the VP's approval. I'm guessing that this didn't happen...and the cases were placed in general inventory. The sales rep for that Specs saw that the product was available, informed the buyer, and the order was placed.

I've seen this happen countless times. Usually the account gives back most (if not all) of the product...but not without some concessions made by the distributor. My guess is that if Specs tells RNDC to pound sand that the enterprising rep is in danger of losing his job.

[Bmac]

Sooooooo......was it Spec's who recieved the allotment? Was it even in Dall/FT Worth area?

[mrviognier]

Sorry...thought Sigel's, wrote Spec's.

[StraightNoChaser]

I have heard from someone else who is especially wired with industry folks and tells me there's a deeper conspiracy involved here...

[redbear]

I should have been paying closer attention. Pappy came and went in the Austin Specs over the weekend.