Survey Says!

If you're a member of our Bottle Club®, you received a survey via email on Thursday of last week. The survey remains open until this Friday, 2/26. As always happens, we received a number of questions that we can address here. If you have not yet taken the brief survey, and would like to, please click here for the Lawrenceville survey, or click here for Woodbridge. After the survey closes, we'll randomly select one $50 Amazon gift card winner from each store.

We appreciate all of the positive comments regarding our staff, our customer service, our selection, and our low prices. We won't pat ourselves on the back too much here. Instead, we'll deal with challenges of various types.

A lot of questions concerned the availability of specific products, or products from a specific country. Sometimes, they are just not available here in New Jersey. Sometimes, we just don't have enough shelf space for everything we might carry. If you're interested in a product that you don't see, please ask a staff member. If it's possible, we can special order something for you.

We were also asked about delivering to homes in New York and Pennsylvania. Under the laws currently in place, that is simply not possible.

Although the comments below are divided by store, they really apply to both, so please read them all!

Lawrenceville Comments

Q: Maybe ensure that the stock is available - particularly for those who might travel a distance because of pricing.
A: We're grateful that so many people make Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville (and Woodbridge) their destination store. Many of the products that we carry are available to us only in limited quantities. For wine that carries a vintage designation, every one is sold out eventually. Seasonal craft beer is designed to be sold for a short period of time. The "angel's share" makes sure that most whisk(e)y has a greater demand than supply (we're looking at you, Pappy). So if you're planning on a special trip to our store for one particular item, while we do our best to maintain adequate stock, it's best to call first.

Q: I never see any coupons or one day sales that would bring in people or have sample tasting to decide if I like the product enough to pay the price.
A: We post fresh coupons on our website every Tuesday. We tweet another coupon every Thursday (another reason to follow us on Twitter). Click here for the Lawrenceville coupon page, but the coupons are valid at both stores. A few times per year we mail out post cards to select zip codes that highlight a few special prices, and that card also includes a coupon or two. We generally don't do any one-day sales.

We have wine tastings most every Friday and Saturday, with craft beer or other products mixed in as well. On occasion, there are unannounced tastings; check with Customer Service to see whether anything is available. As of this moment, our calendar includes 4 cider tastings, 3 craft beer tastings, 2 beer tastings, 2 hard soda tastings, and 1 malternative beverage tasting. Click here for our complete calendar.

Q: I do not like being asked for my ID when I walk in to the store on weekends and then asked again at check out.
A: Ours is a highly regulated industry, and possibly the most important challenge we face is in keeping our products away from those not legally allowed to have them. Unless an underage person is accompanied by a parent, they are not permitted in the store. That's why we ask for a valid ID as you enter the store. Our cashiers simply cannot see whether or not someone provided ID at the door, and that's why they will ask for your ID.

Q: Would like you to have an on line catalog.
A: A few comments were similar to this. In fact, nearly all of our products are searchable on our website, and we offer several ways of filtering the selections. From jcanals.com, you can sort via the Wine, Beer or Spirits pull-down tabs, which offer a nearly endless range of additional filtering options. There are always several products feature on our home page, with a "View More" option. If you know the 5-digit stock number (sku) of an item (find it on your receipt), you can search for that. You can also search by product name in the search box.

Woodbridge Comments

Q: I would like to see on the website a tab for the new beer for the week. Or the special beer for the week.
A: New beer is a difficult category to track. We get such limited quantities of some in-demand beers that they are gone that same day. This blog will feature new beers as often as three times per week. Our social media often includes new beer deliveries. Our Bottle Club® emails will feature a new beer regularly (not necessarily weekly, but we're trying).


Q: I think organization of wine by country in a store that big makes it difficult to find new/different wines if you like a particular type.
A: There isn't any sort of industry standard way of organizing the wines. Generally speaking, we sort first by country, then by region or appellation, then alphabetically. For example, we think it's logical to separate Bordeaux wine by appellation, especially because we rarely know the exact blend, making it impossible to sort by varietal, and the amount of any one grape likely won't be enough to qualify as a varietal. And our California red blends also defy categorization. Some are Bordeaux style, but others are Zinfandel based. As always, if you're looking for something new and/or different, please ask a team member.

Q: Always looking to try wines on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list and you carry very few.
A: The Top 100 list is published in November, covering wines they tasted throughout the year. You'll notice that many are from small wineries, or are otherwise of limited availability. By the time the list is published, many are already sold out, and you'll find that we're not the only store unable to get wine X from that Top 100.

Sometimes, additional supplies of a Top 100 wine are in the supply chain, and it just takes a little extra time to get to us. For example, last week we added 2015's #24 and #84. Those additions are usually featured in this blog.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer our survey. The feedback will help us improve your shopping experience.