Sake Scrooge – When A Grump Discovers Yelp

Not a big fan of Yelp. Never have been probably never will be, but I get it! I get what the intent of Yelp is supposed to be, but the execution tends to muddy the waters and retail folks such as myself are always in the crosshairs. It’s a very powerful tool, which if used for the good is a solid way to share experiences, but more often than not people use it to vent their own personal “stuff.”

For the most part we have always had and continue to get very good marks on Yelp. Thank you. Every once in a long while we will get a three star review or a verbal attack on the store and I feel compelled to respond. I would appeal to the Yelper and mention that perhaps they didn’t understand something and on several occasions they changed their scores. That said some Yelpers just flame, and they really don’t know what they are talking about.

One such Yelper took a shot at our inventory and selection. I must address these call outs. Usually the person in question has worked at a sushi bar serving sake and they call our offerings “simple” or “like everybody else’s.” To that I say bunk! Our selection at the store is by far the largest outside of Japan. Period! Did you hear that Scrooge? We have more sake offerings on our shelves then any place in the world that is not Japan. The good news is that many customers are starting to recognize more sakes. They may see some old-faithful brews from restaurant experiences or they may see sakes that have been on our shelves for over a decade!

Do we keep selling the same sakes? Hell no! We take great pride in changing our sake offerings as often as we can. Some brews are just so solid that they need to be a part of our inventory, and some sakes drink better in some years than others, so we pull them for a while. But we are always looking for new brews, as more and more sakes are imported and we try integrating them into our selection. Of course we cannot carry every sake, and it’s a little embarrassing when an owner of a brewery comes to the store and we aren’t carrying their sake at that moment. We simply do not have the shelf space to offer 600 sakes, but we can always get you whatever sake you want from our distributors at any time. Did you hear that Yelpers?

So Ms. Sake Scrooge who called our offerings “ordinary” I would like you to focus on a little section within every issue of this Newsletter called “New Store Arrivals.” I would also like to thank you for giving me an idea. From now on we will create a little section within the store dedicated to the “New Store Arrivals,” which will make it easier for people such as yourself to actually see how our sake selections are far from “ordinary!” Bah Humbug!