Advice solicited

[stevebody]

Zinner: Please do. I'd welcome any anecdotal input, at this point.

SEVERAL NOTES: First, thanks to all who responded, especially Foodie and Bucko. Judye and I went down to visit Pat Hub at Olympic Wine Merchant last Saturday and were very impressed with both the shop and him. He could not have been more cordial and helpful and his shop was exactly what I think of as a good, appealing neighborhood wine store. We picked up a lot of ideas and he urged us to keep in touch. Thanks, Bucko, for the advice and the newfound friends!

Foodie has been an absolutely invaluable resource for questions and suggestions and we've incorporated a lot of what he's offered. He's been incredibly generous with his time, especially given that he and I were calling each other names as recently as 18 months ago. My humblest thanks, pal.

A BLANKET OFFER: We have a million questions, as do all new-business aspirants, and we will need all the help we can get. With that in mind, I have to also say that simply squeezing people for information without compensation has always rubbed me wrong, so what Judye and I would like to do is to offer to trade out wine for good ideas. We'll have questions that will appear here. If you have time and are inclined to answer them, we'd like to offer your choice of a couple of scenarios:

1. If you're clear on the other side of the country, we'll be glad to ship you some bottles of your choosing out of what we get in sampling around the time of our opening. These would be free and we'll pay the postage. OR,
2. ...for a period of a year, we'll sell you whatever you want out of our stock at cost plus the postage, not to exceed four bottles a month. We can only do this for a limited number of people and only to participants on this forum who have experience in some aspect of the professiona wine trade: distribution, retail, restaurant, hospitality, wine criticism, wine education or anything else that earns a buck and pertains to wine. Whomever offers to do this will become a part of our advisory board and will buy at cost whenever they visit our shop, providing we don't crash and burn like the Hindenberg.

HERE'S THE FIRST QUESTION:

We're looking at two retail spaces in Woodinville, WA, northeast of Seattle about 15 miles. If you mapquest this, the close view will reveal the end of the Woodinville-Snohomish Road, which curves into 132nd Avenue NE. Site One is about 300' up the Wood-Sno Road from the 132nd curve, in the back of a large shopping center. It's about 2200 sq. ft., unpartitioned, with 12' ceilings and concrete floors. It sits about 100' from the post office and about 300' from the fire station. Signage is available on the opposite side of the mall, which fronts onto 175th St. NE, Woodinville's main drag. It's right next to a busy day-care center, is tree-shaded, and has large windows.

Site Two is just south of the interesction of the main street, 175th NE, and its intersection with NE 140th Avenue, about three blocks away from Site One. It's a former beauty salon space in a small strip mall anchored by Jose's Family Mexican Restaurant. It's long and narrow, (about 20x50; 1019 sq. ft.) and is bracketed by a Curves workout place and a manicurist's. It has 12' ceilings, nice linoleum floors, three partitioned rooms, and good signage space above the front awning, with floor to ceiling windows on the front end. The rooms can be partially or completely removed. It's visible from the street (140th) and is just behind the 7-11 that sits directly on Woodinville's main intersection at 175th and 140th. Both have good parking and Woodinville is only about ten square blocks, total, in the downtown area, so anyone familiar with the town should have no problem finding either, using a map or landmarks.

The rent on Site One is approx. $10 to $13 per square foot. The rent on Site Two is approx. $21 per square foot. Triple net on each runs in the $4-$6 range.

Two offers more visibility but more traffic problems. One offers more space and flexibility but has no major street frontage.

Which one sounds best to you?

Thanks in advance for any input and if you're interested in being a member of our advisory board, please let me know at stevebody@go.com.