I am a recent employee of Oddbins and wanted to offer an insider’s balanced response to your observations. We were warned in an internal e-mail that your article was being printed and we should disregard it but, of course, that was like a red rag to a bull so we all read it anyway. On the whole it is a very fair and balanced article…

But this aside, I do not think they have done anything wrong. After all, if a person wants a drink they will always find a way to get it. They would go to a competitor or buy fewer bottles more often or from several outlets. What’s the next thing we should worry about? Cigarettes? I have more than one customer who buys 40 a day.

The tasting, entitled Cava Pasión: Live the Diversity, was a series of PR own goals. I could have lived with the fact that one of the people running it appeared to have taken her morning shower in perfume, but was really annoyed that around a quarter of the wines weren’t there, and that those that were tended to be in wrong order, leaving tasters to…

Leeds is an interesting city, both to live in and to do business in. It’s been “in transition” for about 15 years now, and redevelopment has reached such a fevered pitch that they are now tearing down buildings built only five or six years ago to start new projects. There is a large population within the city centre, but there is next to no infrastructure…

If you missed the original story, Goodfellas franchisee Ciaran Convery took objection to Workman’s criticism of his staff, the smoky atmosphere in his restaurant and the quality of his food and drink. She said that his chicken masala was “so sweet as to be inedible” and gave the place one star out of five. For anyone who earns a living as a critic, whether of…

Knowing me, knowing you, knowing shoppers We know that understanding customers is the lynchpin to a successful business, it’s why so much emphasis is placed on loyalty cards by the supermarkets. But Epos or sales data only records sales, not what customers had wanted, or information that would help understand where tomorrow’s sales will come from. You need to communicate with shoppers to learn this…

OK, it all starts with a bottle of 2006 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Well, not just a bottle, but three cases, which have been made available to us by a supplier. Whatever you might think about this wine, it’s the one with the bling factor, the one everyone’s heard about, and the one people ask for by name. It’s been a few years since we…