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Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits is expanding!

By the end of the Spring, our store size will increase by 4000 square feet to offer you a bigger beverage selection as well as party supplies, wine accessories and more! We will also be offering a variety of themed and made to order gift baskets to make your gift giving extra easy and special. Our newly renovated store will have 6 registers and add additional wines to our already awesome wine selection.

We are excited to make your Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits shopping experience the best that it can be. Check back often for progress reports, and thank you for your patience during our expansion.

January 20th, 2009

As many of you know we are in the process of expanding into the unit next to us, formerly “China Buffet”. The work is well under way and, as of today, making good progress. Let’s hope that trend continues and the entire project goes as smoothly as possible, keep your fingers crossed.

As we get farther down the road with this task the workload that we will have to deal with will get larger and larger. There is a tremendous amount of coordination that has to take place and things have to happen at the time that they are scheduled. Unfortunately for all of us, the bulk of the work will take place immediately after the Dollar Sale in February. At that time our inventory will be at its lowest point, which is a good thing as it means there is a lot less for us to move. The downside to this is that we all will be completely drained of energy from the sale. There is no other time to do this so we have to get into the correct mindset now as we have this load of work ahead of us.

Here is a list of things that have been scheduled so far:

Week of February 2nd – A new doorway will be installed in the back hallway, connecting the two stores. This will be used for “behind the scenes” flow of inventory from one unit to the other. The back offices will be demolished so the "domestic beer box" can be moved to that spot.

Week of February 9^th – The cold box that has all of the Bud, Miller, Coors products as well as the cold wine will be moved to the back wall so the two boxes will form an “L”. That same week we will be making adjustments to the “import” box so we can continue to sell the top selling “domestic” items that you want to purchase.

Week of February 16^th – The Dollar Sale, and that’s enough

Week of February 23^rd– On Monday February 23rd the domestic box will be taken apart, moved and put back together in its new spot. This process will take approximately 4 days and we should have cold beer in both boxes by that weekend.

Week of March 2^nd – The big hole in the wall in the wine section will probably take place during this week. This will require a TON of work. The entire wall that now houses all of the 1.5 liter and some 750ml wine will be emptied, taken apart, the hole cut, rebuild the new shelf units and then re-stock them. And did I mention that we will not be closing at all for any of the above work.

Obviously we have a mountain of work ahead of us and it is very, very important that we keep our focus on the final results and realize now that the next couple of months will be very busy for all of us. I will continue to update everyone as more information becomes available.

David Marberger

Now that the "Dollar Sale" is behind us, we move full force into re-modeling and expansion mode. Having fewer bottles and cases to have to shuffle around will help us out tremendously. Well, we really just moved them, and then some, this week during the sale instead of over the next couple of weeks.

On Monday, February 23rd, we will begin to move our "domestic cold beer box". This is the one on the back left hand side as you walk into the store. It should take about four days and then we will have it re-located, re-stocked and full of cold beer. It's new location will be centered across the back of the store, with two additional doors, and we will switch the "micro's and imports" into that box and move the "domestic mainstays" into the back right side walk-in. This will allow us to have an increased selection of cold specialties and imports as well as maintain the current selection of domestics.

During this phase we will operate out of only one cold storage location for all of our beer. We will have had to cut down on the selection in the windows in order to keep the "best selling / most popular" ones available. This will only be a temporary maneuver that should last no more than one week. We hope this will take only four days, but we have learned the hard way that "Murphy's Law" is no stranger to Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits. If you do not find what you are looking for in one of the windows, please ask any one of us and we will see if it is in the cold storage but just not in the window. We have put a wide variety of products in the box, but can only fit a finite amount in the display spots.

The week of Monday March 2nd we will begin to prepare for cutting the access between the two stores. This will entail removing the wall shelf units (all products will be moved to temporary shelving in the middle of the store), cutting the hole, putting together the new shelf units and then restocking the new shelves. Sounds easy, right?

Rest assured that we are taking every possible measure to see to it that what you want, or may be looking for, will always be available. Although we have decided to temporarily be without some products, we can always order and receive anything that you may want.

We have been and will always continue to work very hard to make Bay Ridge a pleasant shopping experience for all of you. We will not stop, how ever long it may take, until we reach our goal. Please let us know how we can better serve you.

David Marberger

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February 27th, 2009

OK, so the madness continues this coming week with the replacement of the Wine Wall shelf units. Technically we are starting this week to see if we can get a little ahead of schedule, which we seem to be, but the lion's share of the work will take place the week of March 2nd.

Currently the wine wall consists of one run of shelving that equals a total of 53 feet. We will be taking it down, one half at a time, and replacing it in two 24 foot sections. That means we are losing 5 feet of wall shelf space, but the product will just be moving to the new "gondola style" shelving that will be installed in the next couple of weeks. In the middle of the two 24 foot runs will be the access to the new store, a large walk thru will be cut into the wall next week.

As we take the wine off each half of the wall it will still be available for sale and is located on a temporary shelf that is located in the middle of the store directly next to the "Port/Sherry/Champagne" products.

The work on the beer boxes continues and should be complete - we hope - by the middle of next week at the latest. We have run into a couple of snags that have caused a slight delay, but it should be finished soon. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding and we all look forward to having it done.

Please do not hesitate to ask for something that you may not find at first glance, we all would be glad to assist you.

Again, thank you for your patience and understanding during our remodeling. The end result will be FANTASTIC!

David Marberger

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March 6, 2009

Wow, what a week this has been. At first glance one might think that all we accomplished this week was to make the store dusty and disorganized. Truth be told, we were able to really make progress towards the final objective. The hole in the wall that will allow access back and forth between the two stores is now in, just not complete. We have repositioned the domestic side of the wine wall and now have our cold boxes set and stocked to sell the full selection of goods you have come to expect from us.

Early next week we will have the second part of the wine wall complete and the remainder of the beer department rearranged the way we want it. It is our intention to install shelf units in the beer department that will hold one case of every type of beer we carry so you will always know, as well as have access to, the entire selection. Obviously we will have many cases in stock of each of these but, just to show our vast selection, we will present this type of "Beer Menu" for you to use.

We are continuing to make things as organized as possible so your shopping experience will continue to be easy and hassle free. Over this weekend and early into the week of March 9th we will clear the floor of all the clutter and make your selection easier to find.

Thank you again for your patience, understanding and - most of all - your business!!

David Marberger

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March 23, 2009

Well, other than being a week behind on the update of the construction, all is moving forward as planned.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been able to completely rearrange both the Beer and Wine departments. The shelf units that run down the center of the back of the store in the beer area now have at least one case of each product that we carry. If you're a curious beer connoisseur you'll find it much easier to shop when you're not quite sure what you are in the mood for. James has also had a ton of fun adding several new selections to the mix. The cold box that we moved and expanded now has all of the shelving in it and is loaded with cold beer. The final result is no more of the mass piles of case beer but a more organized representation of the quantity that we carry.

The Wine aisles have the most noticeable change to them. We have taken out most of the "wire wine racks" and have replaced them with "gondola" style shelving. This will allow us expand that area by about 140 sku's. It was a real challenge to make this change, but the Bay Ridge Crew was determined and focused on making this happen in a short period of time. We are looking forward to filling in the available spots with more quality wine. Our tasting staff has had to suffer through the arduous task of tasting every day to find just the right fit at just the right price.

By the end of this week - Friday March 27th - the access/walkway to and from the new store will be complete (baring any unforeseen delays). Once this is done we will go through a short phase of behind the scenes activity that will be hard to see by the casual consumer. This should be the last little bit of work before we will be able to get our "occupancy permit". At that point we can move forward with moving the offices and planning the swap of our old cash register area with the new one.

As always, we Thank You for your business and your patience.

David Marberger

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Friday, April 24th has become our new focus date. By then we anticipate having our "occupancy permit" and will be able to make some very noticeable changes to the store. Most noticeable will be the vast quantity of beer on pallets will be moved to the new storage area and out of the wider isles that we have worked so hard to create.

All of the finishing touches in the new area are the focus for this week, ie. carpet, baseboard trim, outlet plates and so on. Thankfully we have passed the creation of dust phase, although there is still plenty to go around. When you are in shopping, it will be easy to see what the basic design and lay-out will be. The opening between the two areas is complete and blocked off only by shopping carts and "caution" tape.

Debra is hard at work narrowing down the selection of non-alcoholic, party supplies and gift goods that will be the basis of the new products soon available. She is a true shopper at heart and is happily and intensively going about this task. We have taken a few field trips to other locations that sell similar goods and have collected some awesome ideas. Her keen sense of design and eye for attractive displays coupled with her extreme knowledge of the industry and all components involved with it will soon be on display for all to see.

At this point, we plan on a "soft opening" for the weekend of May 9th. Although not all product lines and inventory will be stocked as of that date, we will certainly give you a ton of reasons to visit next door and take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that we are gathering for you.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding during our construction. Most of all thank you very much for your continued business, if it were not for that, we would not be expanding in the first place.

David Marberger