Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Offering good cheer for cheap Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 16:56:27 EST Message-ID: \SE A;MONEY \HD Offering good cheer for cheap \BY Elisa Williams \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES If superstores can boost sales of television sets, office supplies and auto parts, why not beer, wine and bottled water? Such is the rationale behind Total Beverage, Herbert H. Haft's latest brainchild. The 25,000-square-foot discount outlet, which opened last month at the Greenbriar Town Center in Chantilly, stocks about 4,000 wines, 500 beers and more than 600 varieties of water, soda and juice. Among Total Beverage's selections are the exotic - such as an Arizona-made beer spiked with chili peppers - and top-of-the-line wines selling for several hundred dollars a bottle. "I got the idea from talking to our customers," said Mr. Haft, who owns stakes in Shoppers Food Warehouse, Crown Books and Trak Auto. "A number of people told us they couldn't find a good wine for less than $10. They wanted better prices and more selection." Mr. Haft concluded that discount-priced beer and wine held untapped potential for the superstore concept. Garnering the support of business partner Kenneth Herman, president of Shoppers Food Warehouse, Mr. Haft developed Total Beverage to be the home depot of party supplies. Along with the libations, the store sells snack foods, desserts, frozen hors d'oeuvres, cheeses, coffees and teas, as well as glassware and paper goods. The inventory includes drink mixes, but Total Beverage does not sell any distilled spirits. "This is really a party store," explained Mr. Herman. "We carry almost everything that people buy when they entertain." Ownership of Total Beverage is divided between Mr. Haft, Mr. Herman and Dart Group Corp., the Landover retailing, real estate and financial company of which Mr. Haft is chairman. The store itself is a hybrid of the retailing concepts the Haft and Herman families already have introduced in the Washington area. It looks like a specialized supermarket, but it borrows heavily from marketing strategies pioneered by the Crown and Trak chains - offering deep discounts on brand-name merchandise. Although Total Beverage is a combination of tried-and-true management, what remains to be proven is whether the store's selection and discount prices will be enough to entice time-starved consumers to make a separate shopping trip to buy drinks and snack food. Shoppers may visit once or twice as a novelty, but the challenge is winning repeat business and changing the buying habits of consumers who have developed loyalty to discount stores that sell some of the same items, retail observers say. To support a store of its size, Total Beverage must make a minimum of about $10 million in sales a year, or about a fifth of the sales of the average wholesale warehouse club, to cover its expenses. The store costs more than $3 million to build, including state-of-the-art equipment such as the 700-square-foot, humidity controlled wine cellar and the 800-square-foot beer cooler, Mr. Haft said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM