On Monday, April 13, 2015 at 2:16:08 PM UTC-10, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2015-04-13 18:34, dsi1 wrote:
>
> >> Wineries around here used to have free samples. As the wine business
> >> grew, wine tasting became a destination activity, so most of the
> >> wineries started charging. If you go in just to sample you pay for the
> >> samples, but if you go in to buy in some reasonable quantity they end up
> >> comping the samples. My brother works part time in one of the few local
> >> wineries that does not charge for samples.
> >
> > Charging for samples is a mickey mouse way of doing business. It implies
> > that your customers are scumbags and are not to be truste
>
> I can understand it. When the business was just getting off the ground
> it was a good way to introduce their products. People would realize
> that the wines were pretty good and buy some to take home. Barring that,
> the might feel some moral obligation to spend money after getting all
> the free samples. But then people started taking advantage going from
> one winery to another just to get free samples. There were local bus
> operators who were organizing wine tours, charging busloads of people to
> go on wine tasting excursions. They were making money on the
> transportation and the wineries were paying for all the wine.

That's just my personal view on this - you catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar, yadda, yadda, yadda. I still wouldn't charge someone who took the time and effort to drive over. OTOH, I'd sure ask for a piece of the action from tour bus companies.