After 18 months in Brookside, Wine has closed.
"We appreciate our loyal customers -- they nearly bought out our inventory these last few weeks," said Wine's owner Andrea Bough. "We only took home nine bottles of wine."
While Wine earned our Best Of Kansas City honors
in 2009 for its Friday night wine tastings and had a loyal neighborhood
following. It just wasn't enough to keep the store open. Wine is the second wine store to occupy the space at 112 West 63rd Street; Cellar & Loft was the previous tenant.
"It was a good venture, but maybe a concept that was a bit too early for Kansas City," Bough said.
In a message to customers on Wine's Web site, Bough pointed to the economy as the main reason for the store's closing:
Unfortunately, we could not have foreseen the difficult economic times that lie ahead when we set out on this adventure. While I believe the concept is perfect for Brookside, we are far from the sales needed to support the concept.Bough will take the summer off to think about what she wants to do next. But will her future plans involve wine?
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I'm going to hope that this was just an unfortunate choice of words on her part. I went to several of their Friday tastings and they were nice, small, low-pressure affairs. The staff was very friendly and I thought they may just have a chance. If you want a display of misguided wine snobbery, check out the Waldo CVS tastings.
A wine store in the exact spot previously failed. Why did she think this time it would be different?
Andrea Bough should bite her tongue.
"Too early for Kansas City"? I'm sorry, but what decade does Andrea live in where she thinks shoppers are going to ignore superior selection and price just to support her endeavor? Sounds like a bad case of small-business owner entitlement to me.
i can't imagine why anyone would open a boutique wine shop w/the prices and selection at Price Chopper, Cosentino's, even CVS.
Good call jjskck. Nowhere was there mention of the Berbiglia liquor store that has occupied the other side of the street for as long as I've lived here. Nowhere was mentioned that Pricechopper and Consentinos BOTH sell wines at a competitive price and usually have pretty good inventories. I'm sure the kind owners were there to offer personalized service and help, etc. but, the market is saturated and the newcomer lost the battle.
"Too early for Kansas City"?
Yeah, we non-trendsetting hayseeds are the problem.
It was a small wine shop, not a "concept". Kindly get over yourself.
The economy tanked, and my sympathy is with any business owner who has had to deal with those consequences. But that's where the blame lies, not with those who were just not cool enough to "get it".
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