I am curious as to the significant differences in wine-mark ups in restaurants. Of course restaurants want to maximise profits, and they have costs to recover associated with wine e.g. buying it up-front and storing it. Nonetheless it is often hard to enjoy a good bottle of wine these days at a restaurant. In London 3 times retail price (plus value added tax) is a "normal" mark-up, but some places go higher, and on one occasion I saw a nine times retail mark-up. This encourages customers to plump for a cheap bottle, meaning that wine lovers have a less that perfect evening.
A great policy was one adopted by Gidleigh Park in Devon, which charged £12-£30 markup e.g. a £5 retail wine would be £17, but a £100 retail wine would be £130. This meant that you might as well splash out, since the mark-up was essentially fixed. This meant that customers had a better overall experience, and presumably are more likely to return to the restaurant. The premises still make a healthy mark-up. Yet this systems, attractive as it is, seems almost unheard of. Views? Does anyone know of other restaurants with unusual mark-up policies that work?
Details and a review of Gideligh Park can be found on:
www.andyhayler.com
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