The good folks over at NPR’s Planet Money had a short piece on pricing at jewelry stores recently (Episode 572, mysteriously not on their website). Frustrated with why jewelry stores hide the price tags of items in the case, the reporter wondered whey they would do that. It turns out that then shop owners can pull out a piece that a consumer expresses interest in and then tell the backstory.

So it made my wine mind wonder…why don’t boutique wine shops do that?

Some shops decry the price leveling competition of the internet. And others are big enough that people want to zip in, do a quick, self-guided browse or scan pay and go.

But there are a lot of small shops across America where there are knowledgable staffs where the strong selections are all what the industry calls a “hand sell” anyway. So why not force consumers to ask the price? Unlike a jewelry store, wine bottles aren’t behind glass, so there would have to be no prices displayed, rather than just flipping the price tag over as in a jewelry case. (There could be a printed price list at the counter for a quick scan by price and for a consumer to make sure the same price was being offered to everyone.) The wine industry relishes stories and this would give shop owners and staff a better chance to tell them.

The downside is that consumers are more educated about wine and the lack of visible prices could be annoying. And constantly having to ask the price after listening to s spiel would be a tad annoying and make even someone not normally concerned with price to appear to have a fixation on prices like Ebenezer Scrooge. In fact, this would be extremely tedious but this is where the price sheet/ipad would come in for the more savvy customer.

What do you think?