Chris Gasbarro's Wine and Spirits with an update

Sorry about being so tardy in replying to my own post promising to provide more details about my odd experience at Chris Gasbarro's Wine and Spirits in Seekonk. I wanted to give Chris Gasbarro the opportunity to reply before posting this entry. He was prompt in responding and I've included his note at the end. (photo: no, this has nothing to do with this post but it is a favorite: the statue of Leon Blum in Place Leon-Blum in the 11th arrondissement, Paris.)

The problem I experienced wasn't earthshaking by any means -- but buying wine is often challenging enough without running into other problems along the way. Anyway, I'm please to report that Chris has taken quick remedial action to see it doesn't happen again.

So a couple of weeks ago a neighbor recommended the Seekonk shop -- she thought the service very good and the wine selection outstanding.

I can certainly vouch for the selection, particularly the Italians, but there is also a very nice variety of French as well. Still, there's just no beating the breadth of Italian wines at Gasbarro's in Seekonk (or the one on Atwell's for that matter). Pricing of the Italian wines, a growing point of despair for the US customer in this age of a strong Euro and a weak dollar, still seemed a bit high I thought, particularly for the lower end whites. So I shifted my attention to the more reasonably priced French whites and reds. There's still great value coming out of the Loire, Alsace and southern and southwestern France, and since they had a good selection across the pricing spectrum, I picked out a full case. All the wines but one -- a "special" value wine -- carried the notation of 10% off as a case discount.

(I should note that as for case discounts locally, some other discounts are: Eno also gives 10% off of a case, while Campus wines gives 6, 10 and 12% for 6, 10 and 12 bottles. The best I've found so far is at Friendly Liquors in Whitinsville, MA. Bill Giannopolis gives 20% off of everything in the store during their wine tastings held several times a year.)

Anyway, I carried my case of wines to the check out counter and after the cashier rang everything up I asked if the total included the 10% discount.

No, she said. There was no discount on any of the wines.

I said that was funny because all but one of the wines carried a price notation stating a 10% discount.

She replied that the one "special" value wine apparently kicked out the discount on the eleven others.

I asked "will I have to purchase a 13th bottle to get a discount?"

She seemed uncertain about that so she called someone who I assume was the manager although he didn't introduce himself as such.

Anyway he fiddled with the computer monitor for a few minutes and I asked him what was wrong. He said that the computer was telling him there were no discounts on any of the wines but he admitted that that had to be wrong since he was sure there was.

I said "OK, now what?"

He didn't know. He just kept staring at the computer screen.

I asked if I was going to get a discount or not and he was uncertain as to what to reply.

I said thanks but I was no longer interested and left the store.

As I drove off I thought to myself, this was a prime example of the new set of problems facing business today: the age-old problem of mediocre customer service but now abetted by the new-age problem of goofy software.

Later I tried to recall if there had ever been a time when I walked out of a wine shop in the middle of a transaction and had to say no, it had never happened before. But the longer I stood at the counter and no one saying anything about making the thing right or work or whatever the more I felt this was going nowhere and that it was time to go.

I drove to Eno in downtown Providence and with the help of the staff picked out a case -- for 10% off.

Will I ever go back to Seekonk?

Yes. Why? Read Chris Gasbarro's reply to my comments and you'll understand.

Dear Steve,

Thank you for the timely reply and the opportunity to review your negative experience at my store. Attention to customer satisfaction is always of great concern to me. I am very proud of the large selection that I am able to offer my customers at very good prices and I strive to always offer an enjoyable shopping experience.

The problem you encountered was due to the store personnel not being able to immediately identify the bottle from your case that was not discountable. You were correct in the observation that point of sale software can make the jobs of cashiers more difficult however there was no excuse for making you wait an inordinate amount of time during the process or for not being polite and apologetic.

My immediate solution is to clearly label each bottle not just the shelf price labels of all discountable wines. I hope this will prevent confusion and delays such as you experienced.

It's this kind of attention to their customers that makes for a successful and flourishing business. So yes, I'm going back this Thursday.

I'll keep you posted.