FINALLY. Here’s the long-delayed second installment to Sinjin & my (Ryan Layman) Liquor Store Showdown. Sinjin is a VERY patient man!

To review the points that Sinjin and I set up for this ‘secret shopper’ experience, we have these following four topics-

1) Customer Service – important to both of us.  Were we greeted promptly?  Did they ask if we needed help?  Did they seem low-pressure if you did not want help (that one is for me…)?

2) Product Selection – hard to measure, but in general we had some ideas on this.  Did they have a wide selection?  Of what – were they good at wine but not beer?  What about spirits?

3) Store layout – Could you find what you want easily?  Did the layout make sense?

4) Price - were they comparable?  How did they stack up on key items?

Customer Service- Grade A- (so far we’re all tied up)

The day I went into Mondo Vino, my first visit in the establishment, was delivery day. When I walked in there was no one on the sales floor and I could hear rustling in the back room of the store. In less than a minute or two a gentleman came out and greeted me, which is a very great sign of what I feel is good customer service (plus, if they would have left me by myself I would have stolen my booty and then we’d have nothing to compare prices on… just kiddin’). Unlike Sinjin’s more interactive experience at Divino, I was the one asking questions and mostly left to wander and shop on my own, which in my book isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like to be left to shop and as long as my questions are answered, I’m very happy. I asked the clerk about a few things, some of which I knew the answer to but  most of which I didn’t, and he was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Also, after looking for a few wines that I knew and had a hard time finding, the clerk went to the back to find a bottle of Scarpetta Barbera del Monferrato for me since there were none on the floor due to this being a delivery day. I thought about my experiences at Divino and how they related to this one experience at Mondo Vino and they felt very equivalent. Certain bartenders I know or work with have more extroverted or introverted attitudes, as long as they are attentive and happy it’s always a great experience.

Product Selection- Grade A+

Mondo Vino has a fantastic selection. When Sinjin and I were talking about having this showdown (what feels like years ago, sorry guys!) he told me that Mondo Vino was a big store with a great selection. I had walked by a few times without actually going in over the years and I always thought it was a very small store. I was wrong. They had a great selection of wine, probably 50-60% larger than Divino. Where they really hit the mark was spirits & beer selection. The long wall of beer coolers had an extremely comprehensive selection, what felt about 4x the size of Divino. I did see a lot of beers in the coolers that surprised me by being there. I asked about the clerk about one specifically, Batch 19, a ‘pre-prohibition style lager’ I had never seen this beer before and the clerk told me with a little shrug and not much excitement it was one of Coors’ newest craft-style brews in an attempt to re-brand themselves. I was curious about his negativity about the product, but I do know you shouldn’t stock your shelves with products that only you enjoy, that’s just bad business.

The spirits selection was also bigger than Divino, maybe 2x as large. I am most definitely a spirits & beer guy, with wine generally taking a back seat, so I was very excited to see this great selection at an independent store. Where Mondo Vino really won me over was their stock of more esoteric items such as bitters and hard-to-find tobacco products such as Nat Sherman natural cigarettes. I don’t qualify myself as a smoker, I smoke pipe tobacco maybe twice a month, but enjoying a glass of whiskey and great tobacco together is one of the world’s greatest pleasures. It was great to see a liquor store take this into account. Now I’m not faulting Divino here, they are completely limited by space as Sinjin has already pointed out, and I know those boys at my favorite local liquor store (still Divino) would have a selection that rivals Mondo Vino if given the space.

Store Layout- Grade A

Again, this place is much bigger than Divino, and was laid out very well, but my confidence in wine shopping is nowhere near that of my confidence in spirits & beer shopping. That being said, this is a wine shop primarily and the average customer coming in is most likely shopping for wine. Where I felt a little lost was looking for specific regions and varietals. While mainly left on my own to meander, I was primarily looking for wines I knew in an attempt to feel out the lay of the land. It was slightly more difficult than at Divino, but not by much. I’m also a sucker for well designed interior spaces, and the store layout at Divino is much more contemporary and unique, which I love. They mural on the back wall was a little out dated for me, and while it didn’t stop me from my excitement of finding a great new liquor store, I’m a former art student (probably why I’m bartending) and aesthetics play a huge part in my everyday experience. Now, is this going to stop me from shopping there?  No way.

A BIG wine selection (and colorful mural on the back wall...)

Price- Grade A

Price between the two stores were fairly neck and neck. As Sinjin pointed out, and with which I agree, the prices were within 5% of each other on different products. I personally know, as someone who orders alcohol twice weekly at Steuben’s, that depending on your relationship with certain distributors, how much of their portfolio you support, how much you can order at a time due to space/cost, and how strongly they want their products in your store, every buyer does not pay the same amount. Which fully explains the slight price difference either in favor of Mondo Vino or Divino. For instance, the bottle of Bulleit Bourbon Sinjin mentioned was $23 at Divino and around $25 at Mondo Vino, whereas Argonaut on Colfax constantly sells the same bottle of whiskey for about $18-$19. The few dollars extra I consider to be a ‘small, locally owned business tax’ that I’m more than happy to pay. I mean really, what’s a $4 savings worth other than a latte at Starbucks that none of us need, I mean come on, buy Copper Door instead! (This is where Sinjin brings me a free pound of coffee beans…)

Overall- Grade A

My time spent at Mondo Vino was great. I took home the bottle of Scarpetta Barbera del Monferrato for about $18 and a bottle of Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6 for a little under $10. The selection was definitely unrivaled by any other store in town and really won me over. Would I go back?  Absolutely!  Was it good enough to bust out my passport in order to get all the way up to the Highlands? Not with a great store like Divino right around the corner, but hey, that’s why we’ve got two fantastic liquor stores!

In thinking about how to evaluate the two shops, we talked about 4 points…

1) Customer Service – important to both of us.  Were we greeted promptly?  Did they ask if we needed help?  Did they seem low-pressure if you did not want help (that one is for me…)?

2) Product Selection – hard to measure, but in general we had some ideas on this.  Did they have a wide selection?  Of what – were they good at wine but not beer?  What about spirits?

3) Store layout – Could you find what you want easily?  Did the layout make sense?

4) Price - were they comparable?  How did they stack up on key items?

Yesterday, I took my trip to DiVino – the experience was very good, to say the least.

Customer Service – Grade = A-

There were three guys working in the shop when I went in.  All three of them greeted me at one point or another in my 15 minutes in the store.  They commented on something that I was looking at.  They noticed and commented on the fact that when I grabbed a bottle of wine, I got it from the bottom of the stack (so they don’t have to shift bottles up every time that wine is selected.)  They joked around about things, sly comments.  They were upbeat, and seemed pretty knowledgeable when I asked about the composition of a wine that I had not heard of.  Mostly, it felt like I was welcomed into their world, where they are so excited to share what they are passionate about with you, and absolutely no pretension or looking down their noses at me.  Comfortable, like being in your favorite bike shop where everyone is as excited about the hubs you are considering as you are.

Wine selection was nicely laid out and easy to navigate

Product Selection – Grade = B

Mainly because DiVino is about half the square footage of Mondo Vino, but what they DID have all seemed to be of good quality and well thought out.  I appreciate that the ‘categories’ are better defined here than in Mondo Vino, so if you were going in for the first time, you could easily find the ‘Oregon’ section or the ‘Cabernet’ section without having to ask.  DiVino is a long, narrow store, so there were selections on the side walls, with one set of racks down the middle.  Mondo Vino, on the other hand, is one big square room with numerous racks down the middle, so the layout is broader and a bit less defined.   Seemed to me that DiVino has a greater proportion of their wines from the US (which is really important to me), while Mondo Vino has a much deeper selection from Europe – maybe this is an ‘old world v. new world’ wine strategy.  I found a couple Oregon and Washington selections that I had not seen since being up there, which was cool – and a number of bottles I had never heard of.

With regards to spirits, I would say that they had the important stuff, but again, due to space, they can’t have a really broad selection of everything.  Mondo Vino definitely has more of everything spiritual – bigger Bourbon selection, bigger Gin, certainly much larger Scotch selection.  DiVino did well, but Mondo wins this one hands down.

While the spirits shelves were limited, what they had was all good quality, without the crap.

Beer?  Again…space.  DiVino only had 3 refrigerated bays for beer, and one cold bay for wine – 4 total.  Mondo Vino has like 8 for beer alone, and they are able to also cater to the Coors and Corona crowd with the extra room.  The beer selection at DiVino was pretty typical, mostly microbrews and specialty stuff, but still – just not a huge variety due to space limitations.

The beer selection was constrained by space (sorry, crappy photo)

Store Layout – Grade = A

I think they did the best with what they have.  Again, its small(er), its not tiny, but it is power packed.  Good stuff in less room means some good thinking went into what selection they can have out.  One other observation about the store – they have a section in the front of their best selections for $10 or less – a customer can zip in, grab a $10 selection without having to wade through the $45 bottles, and get out with a decent wine for dinner.  Nice touch making it easier for the consumer on a budget.

Price – Grade = A-

As with everything, depends on what you were pricing.  I saw a bottle of Sea Smoke Southing for $61 – I should have bought 10, since from the winery its more than that!  But a couple of Oregon selections were 4-5 bucks more than what I have seen at Mondo Vino.  The bottle of Owen Roe Abbots Table was $28.00

The spirits seemed comparable – Bulleit was $23 bucks – I think a couple bucks less that MV.

I bet overall they were within 5% of each other on most things (likely adhering to the laws of the Distributor)

Overall – Grade = A-

Nice guys, easy layout, good selection (for the space), prices was right in there.  The experience was fantastic.  My spend?  More than just a bottle of bitters – my take was $113 – 3 bottles of American wine and a bottle of Frontier Bourbon.  Good experience and a fun trip…now, if it were just a couple miles north!  ;>)

My selections - was happy to walk out of there with this in my bag!

But the dog loves it.

He ran.  He spun.  He posed.

We avoided other dogs – he does not do well with other canines – probably our fault.  Good thing he is on the lookout.  But snow, on the other hand…nice!

Then we went home…still snowy, but warmer there.

Happy snowy weekend!

Ryan likes to badger me about not going out of my comfort zone in terms of places I will go within the city (by choice, of course).  Whether that is restaurants, bike shops, whatever, I have my little bubble (no, not a Boulder Bubble) where I am comfortable in the city.  His point is, my bubble ain’t all that big, and I need to get outside of that more.

This especially applies to wine shops (or spirits merchants, whatever).  Ryan is a devoted DiVino guy, and I am highly loyal to Mondo Vino – have been for about 12 years now.

I have never actually been IN DiVino, he has never been in Mondo Vino.  Its WAY too far south on Broadway for me.  Its WAY to far up in the Highlands for him.

We both know a good deal about spirits (he WAY more than me), and we know something about some wines…and we both know what we like and don’t like in liquids, stores, and the people who run them.

One of my personal favorites!

So here is the deal.  Sometime in the month of December, we each, on our own, have to go to the others’ wine shop.  Give it a fair shake, spend at LEAST 15 minutes in the store, minimum.  Talk up the staff (quiz them on obscure trivia??), browse around, look for dusty shelves or hidden gems, unique stuff.  AND, we MUST purchase a bottle of some product.  Anything.  Might be a bottle of bitters, might be a bottle of Dom Perignon – that is completely up to the purchaser.  Each of us is going to ‘invest’ a little bit in one of these local shops, this month, then give the other an honest assessment of what they like and did not like about the shops.

What do you think?  Is there a difference?  Are there more?  Who will win the Showdown??

The dog always must come along for hikes

While it was not technically a ‘mountain’ hike, we were able to get high enough on the Mesa Trail to have an expansive prairie view.

Looking east - windmills in the distance

Gotta admit, there are worse places to spend an afternoon.  People may dig on Boulder, but it certainly is gorgeous.

Thumbs up, Devil!

Falcon lot > Parmalee Gulch > Indian Hills > Lair of the Bear > Morrison > Falcon lot.

Little bit of snow in the dark shadows, but no too much.  Anything with sun was dry and fast!  Feeling some of that old fitness lurking around somewhere…

Everything on Falcon was dry.  Vast majority of Lair of the Bear was too – a few icy spots (like the entire creekside trail leading to the parking lot)…everything else was awesome!

Flashy new obstacle on Lair…chainsaw anyone??

Felt good…more please!

From an article in Adventure Journal today…

National parks cost every American about $8 per head per year. And parks contribute about $13.2 billion to the economy, even as they received $2.6 billion in funding for 2011, an amount which already was cut $140 million. Overall funding for the NPS has been cut by $400 million since 2001. Nobody in this space would argue that the parks aren’t a freaking bargain, but under the recent budget agreement, if the so-called Super Committee in congress cannot find $1.3 trillion to excise from national spending, there are threatened across-the-board cuts of 9 percent — that’s $231 million more cut from the parks. This might be the last straw, because the parks are all massively hamstrung already, with a backlog of $3.7 billion in critical maintenance (that’d be stuff like roads and building safety), and are incredibly short-staffed, too. If the park system is a bargain right now, that’s also a mirage, because it’s crumbling under the weight of unprecedented traffic (281 million visitors in 2010, nearly 90 percent of the population of this country).

Now I don’t know about you, but some of my best outdoor memories are associated with National Parks.  For instance, I have climbed Mt. Rainier (Rainier National Park), have fished in Rocky Mountain National Park a number of times, and probably the best trip Jill and I have ever taken was a Rim-to-Rim trip across the Grand Canyon in 2008.

Wide open spaces on the Clear Creek Trail, Grand Canyon NP

There is no doubt in my mind that these places are strained.  The South Rim of the Grand Canyon alone has over 5 million visitors per year – granted, most of them are probably from France, but hey, they are spending money here, right?

Then you layer on the potential for bad people to take advantage of these cuts to harm the places that literally millions of people travel thousands of miles to see and appreciate?!?

More broadly, the NPCA report warns that further cuts could result in campground, visitor center, and interpretive center closures, field trips being turned away, and for the potential for looting and vandalism to increase (the NPS has already warned that they don’t have the resources to inventory the historical artifacts it has, so losses may be happening now, because there’s no accurate record of the items). There’s also concern that fewer cops will result in more illegal drug trafficking and growing within park boundaries, and that monitoring and protection of endangered species will fall further behind, even at risk of violating federal law.

But then, what kind of times are we living through right now?  Everything except what is best for the fat cats is being trashed.  Now, I am not some Occupy Wall Street weenie, but come on…this is one of America’s Best Ideas, and one of the most revered and cherished systems in the world.  We should be proud of this, and promoting it wherever we can…and, as you are about to see, even Americans revere these places…

While Americans view Congress with a very dim eye, 85 percent of Americans favor the full funding of national parks. It’s unlikely that that will translate into adding back the $400 million the NPS has lost since 2001′s budget, but it’s also just as plain that any additional cuts may actually lead to park closures, perhaps after someone gets hurt because infrastructure isn’t maintained or rangers aren’t employed to guide people or to respond to emergencies.

Park closures?  Not acceptable — and watch out, SuperCommittee, cause Jill is wicked with a trekking pole!!

Jill guarding camp from a persistent invader!

A pre-meeting raft trip happened.  It was a blast with all the work peeps not being in work mode.

The project managers and SO's before launch!

Captain Miller prepping his cockpit

Brenda, Charles, and Jill getting set

Eli and Addie's craft, with Rochelle and Jeremiah

Jill, Brenda and Charles floatin

And then there was some social gathering to do…

Trevor, before his little 'nap'

Shelly, Hauck, Jeremiah and Rochelle, just at the precipice of Shelly's exploration into her 1980's alter-ego...

A good time…

An iPod Shuffle got me through the Breck-Epic

But what I have always been most impressed with, but have not seen much coverage on it, was Apple’s superiority when it came to customer service.  Sounds foreign, but to me, this was the REAL thing that has always set Apple apart.

When I worked at Qwest, developing the company’s Voice Over IP product, Waldman and I used to scratch our heads about how and why would could not have world-class customer service like Apple for our VoIP customers.  People who really care to take care of people and their needs, not just answer their question in as few words as possible and get on to the next caller.  I don’t know if they simply hire better, train better, pay better, or inspire these employees to give true and considerate customer service, but they are legendary in the industry for doing so.

How do I know?  A few years ago I bought an iMac – wanted to use it for work.  All souped up, super hot machine…but in MS PowerPoint, it could not do a simple chart – and one that is a standard in my everyday work.  I worked on the phone with a Mac rep, on his direct line, for a few weeks trying to figure out the problem.  He facilitated conversations with Microsoft (who was not all that interested in helping), and went to senior engineers in Apple to try to fix my problem.  But try as we might, there was no fix.  Eventually he claimed defeat – and facilitated with the Cherry Creek Apple Store to take my machine back and refund my money – every dime…including software and accessories.  It was awesome, and I left the store thinking “this is the best company and the best experience, for a negative outcome, that I have ever had.”

Speaking of which…have you ever been in an Apple Store?  Genius Bar?  One-to-One service?  They are all based on one thing…service.

That is what Steve left for me.  That there are a few out there that still care about taking care of the customer.  That is what builds loyalty – I see all these snarlers ranting about buying an overpriced phone and how the Apple Cult are foolish cause they are so committed — well if any other company took care of me the way Apple does, they would have my loyalty as well.  Its that simple.

Thanks Steve!

After a long, hot summer of demotivation, the weeds returned, the Round-Up had to come out for final death, and the cool nights of fall were bearing down on us – we had to get this thing done!  The columns were completed in July and the dirt patch had just been sitting there, looming at us for months.  After some travel and hectic schedules, last weekend opened up to finish this thing off.  Let’s go for it!

Front Columns by Olde English Masonry

Next step 1 – Amend the soil.  Probably more important than any other part of the project, getting organics and nutrients into this old, over-watered, neglected soil would do more for future success and water savings than any other thing we do.  The old adage ‘plant a 50 cent plant in a 5 dollar hole’ is certainly true – investing in the time to do it right will certainly pay off!!

Nearly 3 yards of compost in this small space! Smeeelllyyy!!

With the compost in and the soil tilled and raked and tilled and raked and raked again, it was ready for the final layout and start getting plants in the ground.  The plants arrived from Alameda Wholesale Nursery – thank goodness for their little crane to get the trees off of the truck!  101 plants and 2 new trees delivered and ready to rock!

Winching off the Japanese Lilac Tree (clump form)

Kevin Crehan from Solara Designs came over for a final layout marking and guidance (before he went off fishing for the day…) – time to plant!

Close to the house section...done!

Now, before you water weenies see the next few photos…you should know a couple of things…

Yes, we put some grass back in.  From a design, aesthetics, and consistency with the rest of the landscape plan perspective, I could not win the argument about removing ALL of the grass…BUT…we took out nearly 700 square feet of crappy old water-sucking bluegrass, and I put back in 230 square feet of Texas Hybrid Bluegrass from Green Valley Turf in Littleton.  A contradiction to my Trout Unlimited preaching??  Maybe…but consider that this turf uses about 50% less water than regular bluegrass, is in heavily amended soil (which uses about 30% less water on its own), and with its hybrid characteristics, is more heat tolerant than other varieties.  Add in drip irrigation instead of rotor heads, and we just might get somewhere.  I view this as an experiment on how to save water and still have some of the architectural features we desire.

Enough already – here is how it looks…

Sod is in, plants are in...looks nice!

And from the other corner...

I look forward to posting photos a year from now, after a winter of dormancy and a spring of growth!