Last Updated on April 29, 2022 by

Gary Fisch is the Founder and CEO of Gary’s Wine and Marketplace. He first opened the shop in 1987 in Madison, New Jersey, and it grew to become one of the largest fine wine businesses. In 2019, his brand stretched from the coast of New England to the West Coast in St. Helena, California. Gary desires to be the first choice for wine, beer, and spirits by enhancing the consumer shopping experience.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Gary Fisch shares his humbling experience while entering the alcohol beverage industry
• How Gary built the identity of his brand based on a name
• What are some challenges Gary faced when expanding his company?
• How to scale your brand by serving the community and tourists 
• The importance of looking ahead in the wine industry to plan for the now
• Gary explains how to adapt to changes with products and the marketplace

In this episode with Gary Fisch

 What are the keys to successfully building a wine marketplace that consumers rely on? How can you shift your wine from the shelves to an e-commerce marketplace without skipping a beat?

 For Gary Fisch, it was seizing an opportunity that would propel his career forward. From a recession to a fire, Gary rode the waves and successfully built his brand. His experience taught him to evolve with the times — and to pivot with his audience to sustain growth. Today, Gary is here to share his industry knowledge to help you turn your brand into something exceptional. 

In this episode of Legends Behind the Craft, join Drew Hendricks and Bianca Harmon as they sit down with Gary Fisch, Founder and CEO of Gary’s Wine and Marketplace, to discuss innovative ideas and best practices for scaling your brand. Gary shares why advertising is crucial for success, tips for overcoming supply chain and department shortages, and the importance of adapting to changing technology and consumer demand. Stay tuned!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Barrels Ahead
• Drew Hendricks on LinkedIn  
• Bianca Harmon on LinkedIn 
• Gary Fisch on LinkedIn  
• Gary’s Wine and Marketplace  
• Josh Jacobs on Legends Behind the Craft
• Cheryl Murphy Durzy on Legends Behind the Craft
• Paul Mabray on Legends Behind the Craft
• Manischewitz Wine
• Premiere Napa Valley    
• The Wine and Spirits Guild of America  

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Barrels Ahead.

Barrels Ahead is a wine and craft marketing agency that propels organic growth by using a powerful combination of content development, Search Engine Optimization, and paid search.

At Barrels Ahead, we know that your business is unique. That’s why we work with you to create a one-of-a-kind marketing strategy that highlights your authenticity, tells your story, and makes your business stand out from your competitors.

Our team at Barrels Ahead helps you leverage your knowledge so you can enjoy the results and revenue your business deserves.

So, what are you waiting for? Unlock your results today!

To learn more, visit barrelsahead.com or email us at hello@barrelsahead.com to schedule a strategy call.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:03  

Welcome to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast where we feature top leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry with your host Drew Hendricks. Now let’s get started with the show.

Drew Hendricks  0:20  

Drew Thomas Hendricks here. I’m the host of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast where I talk with leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry. past guests of Legends behind the craft include Josh Jacobs of Speakeasy, Cheryl Durzy of Libdib, and Paul Mabray from Pix wine. haven’t listened to these yet, be sure to check them out and subscribe. Today’s episode is sponsored by Barrels Ahead the Barrels Ahead, we work with you to implement a one of a kind marketing strategy. One that highlights your authenticity, tells your story and connects you with your ideal customers. In short, we help wineries and craft beverage producers unlock their story to unleash the revenue. Go to barrelsahead.com today to learn more. Today, I also have Bianca Harmon on the show who’s one of our direct to consumer marketing strategist. How’s it going, Bianca? 

Bianca Harmon 1:03

It’s going good. Thanks, Drew. 

Drew Hendricks  1:08

Thank you and we’re excited to talk to Gary Gary’s our guest today. He’s the founder of Gary’s Wine and Marketplace. Gary opened his first wine shop back in 1987 in New Jersey, and now operates four stores in the New Jersey area dominating the New York metro area. And in 2019, Gary made his leap to the West Coast, opening his first store in St. Halina.

Gary Fisch  1:27  

Welcome to the show, Gary. Drew Bianca, thank you very much for having me.

Drew Hendricks  1:32  

Thank you so much for being on. And thank you so much. For those people are listening asynchronously. And this is Friday afternoon. So we were honored that Jared is taking time out of his one of the busiest retail days to talk to us. Tell me how did you get started in the wine industry?

Gary Fisch  1:49  

You know, I Drew I think we were speaking one point and a lot of people in the wine industry. I talked to nobody wakes up on, you know, in high school and says I want to go into beverage alcohol, I want to open up a wine shop, it all happens accidentally. And you know, when I was going to university, I decided to major in something very, you know, employable. And that was political science and a minor of English. And at university at the University, which was Ryder is a great accounting school. So half my friends were getting degrees in accounting and finance. And they all had a clear path to their success. I was doing political science in England, and no plan for the future. And when I graduated, my father was a traditional Death of a Salesman liquor sales. Oh, so he worked for a wholesaler in New Jersey. And he was older when I graduated college. So he’s thinking about retiring. He’s a kid, which is think about going into liquor sales. And it seemed like a no brainer, right? I spent four years in college drinking, I had drinking down to science. When I went to college, the drinking age was 18. So I wasn’t violating any law. And I was president of my university for two years. I knew how to sell myself. So if I could sell myself and I knew how to drink, I could do liquor. So the end of my senior year, I started selling liquor and wine, but it was really back at that period of time was really all about liquor. Fast power, you know, it was the worst experience of my life. Have you ever sold Have you ever done outside sales? Either one of you? Yes, yes. No. I haven’t started so they can. It’s funny because they, they gave me they assumed because my father’s in the business. And I knew something about how to sell. So they gave me a list of unsolved cases. And it was like when I was old computer printout. So it was like 10 inches thick. And you just look at it these oil accounts that my company didn’t sell. And after a dozen of them. There’s a reason they were unsold because they were dumps. And so it was a humbling experience. I hated every minute of it. But fortunately for me, the summer of my first year, I had vacation and I was meeting a college buddy in San Francisco. And he he was smarter than I was. He had a accounting degree. And he said if if we go to San Francisco, and if you visit a winery, it’s a tax to them. You can write off your whole trip. So we rented a car met in San Francisco rented a car and went up to my only Napa winery, which was really Martini. And it was the second winery. I invented my life so I understood the wineries when I first started they took A road trip from New Jersey to Brooklyn where we visited Manischewitz winery. And in visiting Manischewitz winery, I didn’t see any grapes. I didn’t see any vines. I didn’t see any winemakers. I saw a lot of tanker trucks and stuff. So I didn’t really have an experience with wineries. And when we got to a martini, I asked for Mr. Martini and a farmer came to say a lot. And I had no i It never came to me that the guy who makes the wine and owns the vineyards and owns the labels of actual farm. And he did everything and we spent four hours together five hours together during harvest. It was an early harvest 1980 Somebody’s not ready. Oh, wow. And he had me taste grapes that were coming in. He took me into the vineyard right behind the winery. He brought me into the basement or wire half yet you know much about winery back then. But he had Johanna’s breweries like Ray Riesling for I reached in sweet Riesling. You know Chardonnay? He was so excited to show me his new mirlo. Nice Zinfandel Barbera, mountain ship Lake. screw top. Oh, yeah. Now, so I tasted all through the wines. And when I got back to New Jersey, I was like, enthralled with the remarking. And since I wasn’t doing good job, so liquor, I said, Let me focus on on wine. And let me focus on living Martini. Oh, so I started tasting wine all the time. And for Kevin’s rallies, Windows is a world class. That was that was my right. And that’s the that’s the it was just getting going. I was. I was at Windows a world every week for almost two years ago with the different classes. And so by the time I was 24, I probably knew more about wine in New Jersey than any liquor person. Yeah, because they weren’t even thinking about it. It was now 82 83. And wine was still not, you know, Formosana was my biggest wine. Blue none was my biggest important wine, maybe some bng Beaujolais. So it was really a different time. And I was fortunate 1987 One of my accounts needed to sell a store. And it was he it was a very small store, like 1200 square feet and doing no volume. And he gave me the opportunity to buy it. And that changed the course of history for me.

Drew Hendricks  7:37  

Imagine, then, we have we have we had a similar kind of creation story. We’re about 10 years ahead of you or or behind you. I started in 93 but with a degree in philosophy and attic Greek. What are you going to do with a degree in philosophy, I was gonna be a professor ended up needing to get a job and got a job as a stock boy and just kind of went through the windows of the world course and just got the bug and just never left. Yeah. So So we founded the 1987. How did how did you get this unique? Theory wine.

Gary Fisch  8:15  

So So it’s funny, I could take a step back. So we opened we we had no money. I had zero money because I was I was 29 when this whole thing was going on. And we just bought a house. So I went to my brother who said he would split it with me. And whatever I put up here, so he still had no money. So like any good business plan, what you do is you borrow against your credit cards and your commission. So and the owner at the time couldn’t take the store back that was the deal by law. So he structured a long enough payout, so we could afford it. Okay, and so the first store was in 87. And the name of the store was shoppers discount liquor wine warehouse.

Drew Hendricks  8:57  

Discount, that’s a that’s a tumble. It

Gary Fisch  9:00  

was a timeful and it was part of a co op we advertise with every week. And fast forward about five years. We moved from the 1200 square foot location to a 13,000 square foot old car dealership. We moved into this car dealership and I didn’t want to be just a big liquor store. So we put in cheese, fresh cheeses, meats or coterie. pastries, desserts, breads, giftware, and so we became not just liquor store, and I was having trouble with the identity because yeah, you read the sign that says shoppers discount liquor wine warehouse, and then you walk in and there’s fresh cut cheese, and there’s cheese mongers cutting cheese, and so I hired a facilitator. First time we spent money on anything like that. And the facilitator we brought in a dozen customers in the morning or two dozen customers. Brought in bagels and coffee. And we sat down, the facilitator took control. And he’s got a whiteboard. And he says, Okay, what’s the name of the store you go to? And nobody knew. Oh, it was warehouse liquors. It was wine discounter. It was shoppers wide. It was discount liquors it was. And we were spending 400,000 out here and advertising. And nobody knew the name of the store. So the facilitator said, so if you don’t really know the name of the store, what do you tell people where you’re gonna go? And virtually every one of them said, Oh, I’m gonna go see Gary to have him pick out some wine. So he wrote Gary on the board. And then there was some debate if I should change my name to Jacque Pierre, or something more sexy, and I was like, no smarter. So that’s how it became in 1999 2000. We went from shoppers discount liquor wine were to Gary’s Wine and Marketplace. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Drew Hendricks  11:06  

That’s interesting how in the it was the food that carried you through, and it’s

Gary Fisch  11:10  

the food that that caused us to change our image. And it’s also the food that got us the second location. So we opened up in 87. And then the second location we opened up in 2001. And to keep the history of our growth going, the third location we opened up in 2008. And since your philosophy and political science, I’ll take it, look at it from an economic point of view. There was an economic meltdown in 87. Oh, yes. There was the tech bubble in 2001. Yep. There is the housing crisis of 2008. So we opened our first three stores, right as the economy and so you’re a leading indicator, or you’re definitely a leading indicator, and we opened up our fourth store in 2017. And nothing went wrong. Yeah. So it’s like, okay, the Jinx is gone, broke the trend. Broke the trend. And then what happened? Until 2019 hit right. Yeah. Then we had I was in I come to nap a lot. Even before we bought the store, I’d come to Napa every year for Premier Napa Valley vintners Association has done a great job. Get it once they saw my name was Gary is not shoppers discount liquor. But more credit, he invited me to premier Napa Valley and we’ve been going there for every year for over 25 years now. And so I go every year in February for premiere, and I go once or twice a year, I didn’t even bring a group with me or I would just do some reconnaissance. Every time I went to nap, I go do and I loved the energy of the space. I love I’m addicted to caffeine. I love the coffee. I love the you know and we were doing cheese and charcuterie. They were doing cheese and charcuterie on a big scale. So I saw Dean and DeLuca going out of business. And so February 19. It looked like that. And so I called my wife and I said, Liz, if dinner goes out of business, what do you think about us taking it up? And as we jump now, she’s like, Yeah, honey, whatever you think I’m convinced she wasn’t listening. She was like doing a crossword puzzle or reading or something. And the good news now she listens to every word I say. So we took it over in July of 19. And we got it open record time. We opened October 3 of 19, which a lot of the construction people are working on said is impossible. They turned our power off on October 5 of 2019. And a fire started on the 17th I believe and we lost power. So from the time we opened until November 1, we closed twice lost all of our cheese once I reset the store on March 1 through March 7, we had the busiest week of 2020. We had the busiest week in the history of the store. Right and then we closed Yeah, the pandemic. So, last lesson in so the so the curse of the economic meltdown is over but the new curse of fire and Pandemic as has entered the scene

Drew Hendricks  14:56  

what a challenge so when he was you founded it And it was off to off to the races. How did you What did you make any changes between your East Coast setup and your West Coast setup when you opened up in the

Gary Fisch  15:08  

end? So absolutely, you know, East Coast laws are different, right? So in New Jersey, you don’t automatically get a liquor license if you’re a grocery store. So we sell chug wines you know, we sell franzia and Bota box and you know, we sell Budweiser, Coors Miller, Heineken rum, and high energy Patras in Napa. I wanted to maintain the integrity of what Tim DeLuca used to be sure on steroids. I want them to take what they did and do it back. So we have a full kitchen. We have everything is made in house it’s a it’s a really a gourmet petite restaurant, right. You know, great sandwiches we have ahi tuna Pokeball on Fridays, which you know, the I said I would do everything fresh. When we’re doing the Pokeball and our Thursday I see this huge tuna sitting in the back and I’m like, What are we doing? They said you said fresh and fresh means if it comes in on Thursday, we they break it down. And we serve it on Friday. So the footprint and feel of the stories for May and it is great food great means coulda, shoulda, coulda and cheese for a coffee and pastries. Some pastries we do with in house, but we just don’t have enough people some we buy. And the wine department I think is as good as you get in the region. And it’s really divided in half. I like to say it’s for tourism, meaning Napa Napa Napa Napa, Napa cabs Napa shards, you know Carneros and for the winemakers in Florence, so we have a great selection of bubbles they love you know, we sell a huge amount of champagne, burgundy, Piedmont, you know, and then the funny interesting wines Gruner Veltliner, you know Alsatian wines most fun. So we’ve divided the store kind of into half and that’s half to to serve the local community. And we started with two ways when we buy their wine to sell to consumers come you have to tour has to we sell that wine that they’re looking to drink. Yeah, then ever is constantly looking for diversity on Yeah. And we have that which is awesome.

Drew Hendricks  17:44  

That’s fantastic. How do you um, as far as the difference with the sales goes this, California has got your, your West Coast store has a little more of a say upscale is not the right word, but has a broader, more gourmet selection.

Gary Fisch  17:58  

It has probably a larger group, it’s definitely a higher percentage of the total businesses are made for sure.

Drew Hendricks  18:02  

Have you had an run into any issues in the last year trying to keep the store shelves with all the supply chain?

Gary Fisch  18:09  

Is the first issue we’ve had and is the hardest one is personnel. Yes. So if you guys know anybody looking for how we need everybody. You know, I thought it would be you know, I was very naive. To be completely honest. I was I was smitten with Dean and DeLuca. I’m in love with Napa and St. Halina. And the opportunity came and I said, why couldn’t we make it successful? Well, to make it successful, especially running stores on both coasts, I need a great team. And now I believe we have a great team, albeit, we’re still missing a shortstop and the centerfield. Yeah, we have a great general manager, we have, you know, a great chef, we have great wines in. But the wine team is short, a couple of people are choosing to coterie department is short, a couple of people, you know, and our grocery, we don’t have a grocery buyer. And we’ve not been able to fill half of the positions.

Drew Hendricks  19:13  

You know, we see the shortage of human capital across across the industry. It’s it’s like it’s a, but it’s talked a lot about that so much focus has been on the supply chain, and it’s start to stop thinking about the human supply,

Gary Fisch  19:25  

which for us is a greater problem, right, the supply chain is it would be a bigger problem if we only made one wine and we couldn’t get bottles glass, right? But if I run out of x, y and I can buy y I’ll find something to sell. If I can’t get the Ave cheese. I can get another cheese right so, so the reality is, we’re never out of everything. There is some frustration we can’t get containers. So we have to be a little bit more flexible. Are we Can’t get something so it causes the work to be more creative, flexible, but we could still run our business. Few as you say, human capital is our biggest challenge.

Drew Hendricks  20:12  

And kind of talking about human capital and and also just your success, like so many. I’ve worked with so many independent wine stores, I worked in an independent wine store. And it’s just a it’s a tough job. How, what’s your secret to success? How did you get to four locations? And how did you compete against some of these really large? Not that you have multiple occasions, but I wouldn’t consider you to be a chain store. You’re not a total lions. You’re not a bat? Mo? How? How do you guys stay competitive? And what do you attribute your success to me?

Gary Fisch  20:42  

I think the beginning of the six steps was raw, hard work, right, um, seven days a week off in the clubs. That’s who I am. That’s what I did. My brother who now no longer in the business, and I were talking this morning, about the old days, you know, when we had the first store, and it was, you know, you picture a strip center. And that’s where the first store was in a strip center. And every Friday, we would get weekend deliveries. And we had no room in the store. So we put it on the porch, we call. And every Friday night, I would hand truck in everything. Saturday morning would take it out Saturday night and bring it back in. And if we had a good weekend, there would be nothing left on Monday, we start all over again. So just raw, hard work, right? passion and knowledge has gotten us to where we are what’s continuing to get us to compete with, as you say that most of the totals. And even in the e-commerce space is a couple of things. One is my son has come in and he came in during getting his MBA COVID. And this helped our technology which was good become great. So we have a fantastic mobile app. So during the pandemic, we had curbside pickup and local deliveries when we closed our doors. So we were able to maintain this. We have you know, an upgraded website, we have technology for reorders, and, and managing our inventories. And then the second part of what I think makes us successful, is we work with a group called the wine and spirits Guild of America. And it’s a group of independent multi generational family owned businesses. I talked before my son came with a business we were the first generation of a multi generational family owned business. But there are stories from around the country. There’s twins and out of Austin originally, but they have over 100 stores. There’s, you know, stores in Kentucky stores in New York and Connecticut and Massachusetts. So we get together twice a year. It live and once a month on Zoom. And we really share best practices. And so by meeting them last night network,

Drew Hendricks  23:01  

I guess it’s a mastermind network of

Gary Fisch  23:05  

with all the stores involved, it’s about $3 billion with retail sales, from stores that are independent 200 store chains. But we have similar problems, right? We each have the manpower problem, right? We each have supply chain. We each have wholesaler relationships, we each deal with e-commerce, competitors, and e-commerce competitors are also wineries now, right? They’re our best friends. And our biggest competitor. Yeah, was in time, but it’s always good to have somebody to talk to and in the widespread scope gives us that opportunity

Drew Hendricks  23:41  

will support network. So what advice would you have to to an independent wine store that may not have access to this sort of leadership base? How does a wine store compete to?

Gary Fisch  23:55  

You? You know, it’s it’s it’s a challenge, right? As as we all know, but if you’re an independent store, and you’re up on what’s going, you have to be a student, right? You can’t know it all. Because if you knew it all yesterday, it’s changing today. Right? Who would have thought that Greek would become an important part of our stores and we’re growing our Greek? Who would think that we would go from six Portuguese wines to 50 Portuguese wines? Yeah. So so as an independent, you have to constantly be reinventing yourself and changing the selection. If we only carried Napa cab, we’d be out of business. Right? So it’s, it’s a matter of being business savvy and knowing what the market is looking for. And also being able to make sharp turns when necessary. Listen, and listening to your customers. Absolutely. And talking to your customers and listening.

Drew Hendricks  24:59  

Yeah, work, like it’s so hard to resist the temptation and just to compete on price. It can’t race to the bottom, so you can’t rate and then you also can compete on like, selection, because there’s always going to be a store that has a couple more wines than you. So you gotta compete on actually offering the right selection to your audience. And that is, as you just said, it requires you to pivot. And as you also said, that you have a different selection in California as you do in New Jersey, because it’s a different audience.

Gary Fisch  25:28  

And also, like, every year we meet in January, you know, my wine buying game animatic like, Okay, what’s hot, what’s not where we are proud of is not going to be any Chablis in 2021. Okay, let’s load up on Chevrolet. Now. Let’s look maybe is there may calm that we provided save. And we’re constantly looking at what is available that we can be bringing in? And how do we adjust our our mix? Because you’re right, we can’t have the largest selection. Nor do I want the largest selection. And we can’t be the cheapest. Although we’ve fought that fight for years in New Jersey, trying to be the cheapest. We have to be the best. And cheapest isn’t always the best. But having what people are looking for, is is the approach, who would have thought we needed to have our TDs or cam one for years ago?

Drew Hendricks  26:26  

Yeah, how have you seen that segment grow? Is it

Gary Fisch  26:30  

it’s not as tasty for us as it is for stores. You know, like the ferry wine merchant, I believe does a huge amount because people going on the ferry to go home, grab a can of wine or RTD, you know, stores near the hub of commuter in New York in New Jersey. But it’s it’s blooming for us. It’s up significantly. And three years ago, and you know, we didn’t treat it now I have a category manager that does RTDs canned wines. And better for you. category, which is what’s called spirits. And low

Drew Hendricks  27:10  

alcohol. low alcohol is a big new segment. What about what is our TD?

Gary Fisch  27:15  

Ready to drink? Oh, really, that is, you know, you there used to be you know, it’s funny, nothing has changed. When I was growing up, they had the cans, club cans. What’s it called

Drew Hendricks  27:30  

the Bacardi club cans.

Gary Fisch  27:31  

It was, but it was I think it was heublein or one of those guys that now. And there was cheese margarita mix. So there, there’s been these ready to go, you know, prepared. And now it’s huge now is you know Moscow Mules, and gin and tonic, and, and all these things. And it’s become a real category. So we treat it now, like a real category. And I have a category manager who’s responsible for making sure we have the right products, the best products, not all of the products. And if something doesn’t work, we take it out and put something new.

Drew Hendricks  28:10  

Yeah, that’s That’s smart. As far as I can. So they’re all the rage here in California or at least don’t worry, I’m I’m in Southern California, with the outdoor culture. I mean, I don’t wanna say it’s like the soccer moms new beverage just having the canned wines in it. Do you have How do you make space for a new category in your stores? Because all the shelves are always taken up, you have to actually something has to go in order to put something new in. Especially when a category starts to go. How do you decide where to what to eliminate?

Gary Fisch  28:44  

That’s That’s it. Yeah. Yeah, and that’s, that’s the challenge what was happening. Right. And so while we at beginning we it was random, right? But we’ve gone through and we eliminate slow movers and we move things around. And we’ve, you know, we’ve tightened things up. And we’ve created real sections at all the stores so you, you really can identify that it is a low alcohol section, or you can identify that it’s a ready to drink, you know, and again, the shelves are different you have to have different shelf set, right because there’s can say the shelves don’t need to be this big they you know, it’s you have to play it constantly be on top of it.

Drew Hendricks  29:40  

Kind of shift in the shifting the discussion here a little bit to e-commerce and that that’s constantly changing in a came into its own with COVID when everybody just sort of buying online. Have you seen and you guys have invested in technology. How do you How have you seen that shift? Now that we have all the direct consumer wine sales coming And then the new platform picks wine that allows all the ones first to kind of sell in this aggregated marketplace.

Gary Fisch  30:06  

Again, it’s it’s about a moving target, right? Just when you think you understand that it changes dramatically. As I’m sure you know that the wholesaler to tear of the three tear system is very diametrically opposed to direct to consumer. And by virtue of that, they’re very opposed to retail stores, selling and shipping. So every day we turn around, there’s a state that we can ship to this is the weekend ship. So the logistics of that are challenging the cost of shipping. You know, Amazon has taught you that free shipping should be a part of the program. Sure. When it goes from $9 a case to $40 a case to ship depending on where it’s going to free shipping becomes a real burden. So it’s something where we were finding that the key is items that are unique, unique meaning very limited production, very limited exposure, maybe it’s a vintage change, we were we got a great opportunity. You can’t just throw something out there and expect it to sell. So again, it like the shelf sets in the store. The email opportunities have to be thought differently than five years ago for sure. And you have to have technology to support it. You know, they’ve got to be able to go on your mobile app and shop the same way they would shop from a laptop or a desktop.

Drew Hendricks  31:52  

So what’s what’s kind of wrapping down? What’s next for Gary’s Wine and Marketplace?

Gary Fisch  31:59  

Day off? I you know, it really depends who you ask, you know, my 30 year old son was thinking, we need to open up in Chicago and in Dallas and in Miami and in DC. My Napa general managers thinking we need to open up in Sausalito. And so it’s a pencil and I’m thinking who knows, you know, let’s so we’re taking it very, I’ve always taken it slowly. Except for the fourth to the fifth, or that was pretty quick. But we’ll see, you know, there there as the world changes, we will we will say I can guarantee you, we will not look the same next year.

Drew Hendricks  32:49  

That’s some great advice, being just able to be nimble, pivot, listen to your audience and adapt knowing that the one constant is thing consistency. And you know that tomorrow will be different. We just don’t know what it is and just got to be careful in that. And just you just got to get a rest in the and that also allows you to get market share because you’re able to change quicker.

Gary Fisch  33:12  

Absolutely. Having your your I read everything, you know, you’re reading articles about what’s hot, you know what’s going on, and, and you’re just constantly reinventing. And I think, for any business, not just beverage alcohol, but you need to first up you need to work hard. You need to understand and really become an expert in the category. And you got to be nimble. Yes, maybe I should write a book. Yes.

Drew Hendricks  33:38  

How to pivot with Gary. Oh, man, Gary, this has been great. Where can people find out more about you?

Gary Fisch  33:46  

That’s a great question. Thanks for asking. We have a website, Garyswine.com. And you could sign up right on there. We have a mobile app, just put on your telephone. And we will get you deals and offers we will ship it to your house. Depending on where you live. We’ll deliver it depending on where you live. And we’ll take good care of it. So it’s Garyswine.com.

Drew Hendricks  34:13  

Sounds fantastic. Well, thank you. Gary, thank you so much for joining us today and get back to those wine sales. It’s Friday afternoon.

Gary Fisch  34:20  

Thank you very much for your time. Thanks, Gary. I look forward to seeing you when I’m back in town.

Outro  34:34  

Thanks for listening to the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.