Friday, December 10, 2010

The holidays, from the wine distribution side

The holiday season, from the wine retail side, is one hectic long unending month of working from morning till night filling orders. One feels like one of Santa's elves. Everyone needs to shop and gifts need to sent out via UPS and they need to be picked up and packaged and everyone would like it all to be done today, yesterday if possible. So if you work in wine retail, and I imagine anything retail, the month of December means a great deal of time on your feet, a lot of problem solving for customers, and not a lot of time off.

On the wholesale distribution side, I'm finding it means a lot of conflicting things and trying to make two sides agree on things. It's being the middle man and finding a way to get things done in an expedient way. What I mean is that some of my customers are waiting for wine and wish they could get it yesterday, but I can't get it to them till next week, and that's a just a bit too late for comfort. Meanwhile, other customers would rather not take things that we have ready for them to take. It's a balancing act, and it isn't easy. There's a lot of urgency and pressure because of the holiday season. It would be nice if things were all flowing easily and quickly and I hope for it to do so, but so far, it is a test of juggling supply and demand and hoping that one meets the other. But I guess in economics and in life, it is rarely that. That which is in high supply is rarely in high demand, and vice versa. I suppose that's why some lament that people often want what they can't have, and don't want what they can. This seems particularly heightened during the so-called holiday season.

So here I am. I'll attempt another day of trying to balance supply and demand and get people to take the supply we have and wait for the supply we don't!

Happy holidays!

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