Around the Interwebs with Joe Canal's

Just because we're a brick & mortar store doesn't mean we're not very active in cyberspace as well. So please let us take you though our presence on the internet. If nothing else, this brief information session can save you money.

Website

Our website is www.jcanals.com. If you're a new visitor, that URL will first give you a choice of our Lawrenceville or Woodbridge stores, before sending you on to your preferred destination.

This image is the Woodbridge home page, and the Lawrenceville page looks the same. Here's how to navigate the site:

Login: Click there to create an account. This will give you access to the Bottle Club® pricing for our store stock.

Search Box: This sits below the Login. This allows you to type in any term and search the stock listed on our site.

Drop Down Menus: Below the Search box, you'll see "Wines", "Spirits", etc. Each is a pull-down menu, except for "Events" and "Blog", which take you directly to those pages. The Customer Service tab includes an assortment of topics, from Employment information to our special order request form, and new topics rotate in and out on occasion.

The sections above are visible on every page within our website. Clicking on the logo (top left) will always return you to the home page.

Left Gutter: There are four red buttons on the left side of the page. "Click and Save" is where you can sign up to receive our twice-weekly Bottle Club® emails. "Current Sales Ad" takes you to a pdf file that lists many of our sale items. This usually changes every three weeks. "Weekly Coupons" is a link to saving money. Every week, we typically publish six coupons that offer additional savings on wines, beer and spirits items. You don't even need to print the coupons, as long as we can see the code on your smartphone.

The Left Gutter will change as you go to other pages within the website. The changed buttons will allow you to select specific shopping parameters and view our inventory.

The final item on the left is a link to our Events Calendar, with a brief note about the next few on the schedule.

Images: There are several images that rotate in the space where you see "What's New?" above. Clicking on that image will take you to that specific destination within our website.

Main Space: You'll first see a few featured items, with links to allow you to view more products.

Bottom of Page: Not visible in the image above, you'll find our store address, phone and hours, an interactive map, and links to general information.

Twitter

We post to Twitter a number of times throughout the day. The topics will vary; we'll give you advance notice of events, we'll let you know about specials, we'll re-tweet info from our partners, etc. Every Thursday, we offer a Twitter-exclusive coupon, giving you the opportunity to save even more money.

Find us on Twitter:
Lawrenceville: @jcanalslawrence
Woodbridge: @jcwoodbridge

We do follow back.

Facebook

We post to Facebook once or twice a day. The topics can differ from what we post to Twitter, and we sometimes go into more detail than we can with 140 characters. And whichever platform you prefer, we do respond to inquiries, comments and concerns as soon as we are able.

Find us on Facebook:
Lawrenceville
Woodbridge

Looking Ahead

We have any number of web-related projects in the development pipeline. We're currently evaluating an on-line ordering process for our Woodbridge store. This would allow you to place your order through our website, so that it would be ready for you once you arrived at the store. That's a much-requested feature, and should be operational within the next few months.

If you think there's something we should include, please let us know. We're open to suggestions for improving any aspect of our operations.

Website Update

When we recently updated our website, we added a slew of new features and functions, in order to make the experience better for you. Because we've had a number of questions recently, we thought we'd offer a quick tutorial on our website.

Actually, it's websites, as each store has its own dedicated site. The information is nearly identical, but there will be differences based on products, displays, and so on. For a working example, here's the Home Page for our Lawrenceville store.

In the upper left hand side of the page, you see the Joe Canal's logo. That's a direct link back to the Home Page from anywhere in the site. In the upper right hand side, you see "My Account" and "Logout" (or 'Login', depending.) At My Account, you can sign up for a Bottle Club® account, Log In and maintain your account settings, such as a password. "Logout" is useful when you're on a shared computer.

You must be logged in to be able to see our Bottle Club® prices on our extensive inventory.

The grey rectangle with the magnifying glass is our Search box. If you're looking to see whether we have a certain item in stock you can search here. The Search box will perform a level of auto-fill, so bad spelling shouldn't be easy.

Next text down reads Wines, Spirits, through to Stores. The Wines, Spirits and Beer pull-down tabs allow you to search our inventory by category. You can, for example, search by country, varietal, by bottle size, etc. Growlers are listed under the Beer tab, and they're updated regularly. We often create temporary categories. Right now, we have a WS Top 100 of 2014 selector under Wines on the Woodbridge site. That will be removed when we sell out of that category.

Events is a button, not a pull-down. This takes you to the website's Events page. There, we keep a chronological list of wine tastings and other special events. Blog is a link that takes you to our BottleBlog, where you are currently.

The Customer Service pull-down is something of a catch-all category. During the holiday season, we had our holiday hours added in. Employment applications are under that pull-down tab, our Contact page is as well, among about a dozen subjects in total.

You should easily see the word "Growlers" in the picture with the three beer glasses. These are also direct links to the captioned subject. We will also make changes to the rotating pictures throughout the year.

You'll see several subjects linked in the left hand side gutter. That's the section topped in red. Direct link to our weekly coupons, sale ad and upcoming events, including a list of the next several events. And, at the top of that section, you can sign up for our twice-a-week Bottle Club® emails.

In the center section, we offer Featured Wines and Featured Spirits. These are sometimes taken from the Bottle Club® emails, and sometimes additional special offers will appear there.

We'll finish up today's tutorial with a quick review of the bottom of the Home Page.

To the left is an Information column, with links to the following pages: View Mobile Site

•     Contact Us
•     Privacy Policy
•     Return Policy
•     Terms & Conditions

Next is the Account section, similar to what's at the top of the page. Next is our store address, phone number, store hours and social media links. Finally, you have a map of our immediate area, which links to Google Maps.

Please take a few minutes to check out our entire website. It's a powerful tool that will make your experience better.

New Website, New Products

We're showcasing lots of "new" this week, starting with our web site. Our totally revamped web site allows you to search our inventory. If you're a Bottle Club® member and logged in on the web site, you can see our Bottle Club® prices.

Registration at jcanals.com is free, and there is no obligation to purchase anything. To register, if you're an existing Bottle Club® customers who receive our twice-weekly emails:
1.    Go to www.jcanals.com and select Lawrenceville or Woodbridge.
2.    Click on “Login” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
3.    Once on the Login page, enter your email address in the appropriate box, then click the “Forgot Password” link.
4.    Follow the Set/Reset Password instructions you receive in an email.

For anyone not in the Bottle Club®, or anyone else not currently receiving our emails, you will need to create an account, as follows:
1.    Follow steps 1 and 2, as listed above.
2.    At the Login screen, click the “Create an Account” button.
3.    On the “Create New Account” screen, complete all fields and click the “Create Account” button.

If you're having any issues with our new web site, please let us know by using the Contact Us feature, at the bottom left of the Home Page.

What Else Is New

Hennessy VS Shepard Fairey Edition

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary street artist who created the Hope poster for the 2008 Presidential campaign. other works are on display at the Smithsonian, MOMA in New York, and other museum collections.

"My inspiration for this limited edition design was based on the legacy of Hennessy as a brand. To me, Hennessy has always been about Quality, Authenticity, Tradition, and Elegance."

"When I look at the history of Hennessy and how the eaux-de-vie are saved for years and built upon, I see a connection to the way I work as an artist. I've developed, experimented, come up with techniques that I've then pushed and pushed and refined." - Shepard Fairey

This collector's edition is available in very limited quantities.

Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum

From down on the waterline in Barbados comes Blue Chair Bay Rum™, beach made and beach aged for when you want to kick back and let time fly. The Banana flavor is the latest addition to the rum section.

Beringer Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc

Not exactly new, but we got this amazing summer white wine at such a great price that we wanted to highlight it.

The Beringer Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc is an enticing wine with aromas of kaffir lime, nectarine and honeysuckle. The palate has a pleasing mouthfeel, notes of lemon zest, tangerine, and a bright acidity carrying into the finish.


Regularly $16.49, we have this in the Bottle Club® for only $10.98.




Svedka Peach

Another summer staple is a juicy, ripe peach. SVEDKA bottled that flavor, and it's available at Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge.

Here's a quick mid-week cocktail.

1 part SVEDKA Peach
2 parts cream (or milk)

Pour the SVEDKA peach and cream (or milk) into an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks-style glass that's been filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a peach wedge.

For a twist on this cocktail, make it in a blender.