THOUGHTFUL RAMBLING No. 8
"Jug Wines With Screw Tops Have A New Hero"

As it turns out, the Prom Queen lives in a trailer park.

Last week, at the 2007 California State Fair Wine competition, the Charles Shaw Chardonnay, affectionately known to Californians as “Two Buck Chuck” because of its $1.99 price tag, took the top prize beating out 350 other Chardonnays from all over California. Second place went to a lovely $18 bottle of wine from Napa, while the most expensive Chardonnays in the competition, bottles that topped out around $55, didn’t even place.

Anybody know how to say “Yo Mama!” in French?

It’s another feather in the cap for America’s cost-conscious winemaker. Sold exclusively through the quirky Trader Joe’s grocery stores, the Charles Shaw Shiraz bested 2,300 other wines at the 2002 International Eastern Wine Competition before the 2005 Chardonnay was named Best of California and Best of Show at this year’s fair with a score of 98 and a double Gold Medal.

“We choose to sell good quality wines at $2 a bottle because we think it’s a fair price,” said Charles Shaw’s Fred Franzia in an ABC News article. “We think the other people are charging too much!”

Admittedly, I’m not much of a wine drinker and don’t really appreciate all the nuances that make one bottle of wine worth $5 and another worth $500. Shoot, where I grew up, anything with a cork was considered fine wine. But what I can appreciate as a marketer, is that whether it’s a judge, or a consumer, people choose what they like. Period.

Oh, we can influence their decision through advertising and marketing. We can help educate them. But ultimately, people like what they like. They buy what they like. And best of all, they tell their friends what they like.

Presently, Charles Shaw bottles a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot, a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz varietals and a Valdigue in the style of Beaujolais nouveau. All sold for about two bucks a bottle.
Could they raise that price now that they’ve been named the Best Chardonnay in one of the best wine regions of the world? Of course they could.

But they won’t.

The real estate they own in the hearts of their consumers pays all the dividends they need. In California, they are truly a beloved brand. They know who they are. And now, so will the rest of the world.

Join me in raising a glass, or your best plastic ware, to “Two Buck Chuck!” May your success be long, and your journey to Texas stores be short!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE No. 1
"Where the HELL did common courtesy go?"

Anybody seen a decent set of manners laying around here somewhere? And by somewhere, I mean our country.

For the past few years, I've been noticing a serious decline in basic courtesy. I'm not talking about standing up whenever a woman walks in a room or throwing a $500 blazer into a puddle so a woman has something to walk over. I'm talking the basics here. Please. Thank you. Don't eat your salad with the big fork.

Just to get an idea of how bad it's become, I tried a little experiment over the course of about 10 days. In that time, I held the door open for 27 people. Of those people, only one said thank you. ONE! You know how shitty 1 for 27 is? I couldn't make a 6 and under girl's T-ball team with that batting average. One thank you out of 27 and that came from a kid. A precious little girl who didn't even hesitate.

A fleck of hope springs eternal.

But seriously, what's wrong with people? Are they just angry? Are they just too busy? Or just totally friggin' rude because they just don't know any better? I'm tired of being treated like a doorman when I hold open a door. I'm tired of giving gifts I put a lot of thought into with absolutely no acknowledgement from the recipient. And for the love of God, when I slow down to let you merge into my lane at the last second because you spaced the onramp and pulled some BS Cole Trickle "Days of Thunder" move instead of going down to the next exit and coming back around for another try, give me the damn wave!

I'll admit, my grandmother and my mother were big sticklers for manners so I'm probably hyper-sensitive to it. But in discussing this with other people, they too seem to be bothered by the complete lack of respect that we're finding in our common man and woman.

Now I've been to enough focus groups to realize how dangerous it is to extrapolate from my personal experience that the whole country's notion of common courtesy is completely whacked. And I wouldn't. Except that in the last eight months I've seen our collective rudeness manifested in the one place where civility should shine the brightest -- Congress.

I'm not sure when Capitol Hill turned into Jerry Springer, but every day brings another story about who's to blame, who's at fault and who is failing our country rather than who is creating, who is fixing and who is leading. Campaigning in last year's elections, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Read talked at length about bringing civility back to the Congressional discourse on the Hill. But since then, their extremely personal, vitriolic thrashing of all people and policies Republican have done anything but. And they're not the only ones to blame. The Right can be just as negative.

What's happened to us? And more importantly, what will happen to the world we leave our children if we don't find a way to make this better?

We don't all have to believe the same things. Our diversity of thought has always been a strength of our country. But don't we have to be able to discuss our differences without the conversation getting ugly and personal? We have to treat each other, and each other's opinions, with more than simply a modicum of respect. Otherwise, our blessed democracy and everything it stands for will go right down the tubes.

It would be nice if we could snap our fingers and make it right. But we can't. Bringing common courtesy back will take a rebuilding process. An individual focus on loving our neighbors as ourselves. It will take teaching our children to do all the things we don't do.

It will take leading by example.

We can't do it all at once. But here's a good place to start!

1) Say please and thank you. Every time.
2) When you're with even one other person, hold the door and let them pass through first. If you walk through a door, look behind to see if there is someone you can hold it for. When you go through a door being held, always acknowledge the person holding the door.
3) If you walk in front of someone in the grocery store, at the mall, or anywhere else, say excuse me. Same goes for sneezing.
4) If you tell someone you'll do something, do it. Even if it's tougher, longer, or more expensive for you.
5) When two lanes are merging into one, it works like a zipper. One car from the left. One from the right. If you're speeding up to keep other cars from merging, you're being an ass. Don't be an ass.
6) When someone lets you into traffic, give 'em the wave. They earned it.
7) Acknowledge gifts. A thank you note is always an unexpected joy. But at very least, say thank you verbally or in an email.
8) Guys, when you're out with a woman, pull her chair out and seat her before you sit down. That goes double for her car door.
9) Next time you go to Starbucks, call one person and ask if you can bring them something.
10) Especially with the people you love, put their interests first. Love them more than you love yourself and watch what happens.

Hey, I'm not perfect. I don't do these all the time either. But if we all got in the habit of doing most of them, most of the time, just imagine where we'd be.

I'll tell you this -- C-SPAN will be a lot less frustrating.