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About a year ago, we were kind of coming off Trump's President Trump's Liberation Day, higher or uncertain tariff environment. It was. We were kind of up in the air about a lot of things. And at the time we were forecasting put out a story at Bloomberg just ahead of Memorial Day that the price of a cook atte was going up.
B prices were an issue.
Then too, yes, right, and that was well. The story got into a lot of the issues were domestic ones that were impacting the prices of things. And then I think about this year, Tim, what's going on?
Okay, us warning ron higher energy prices, higher gas prices, inflation prints just this week reminding us that inflation is outpacing wage growth. Not so good.
That's so great. So what does it mean for our summer picnics as we get ready, please please to kick off summer. It's just around the corner.
It was a felt like forty five this morning. That was to feel like temperature fifty one degrees in New York.
I still head layers. I hear it's going to be like eighty degrees on Sunday. Yep for more, let's head to Stu Leonards Fine Wines and spirit Store. It is in Norwalk, Connecticut. That's where we find Blake Leonard. She's the president of Stu Leonard's Wines and Spirits. She's also part of the next generation that will take over running the store founded by her grandfather. She will take the reins as president along with a cousin from her dad,
Stu Leonard Junior, keeping it in the family. I love that you are a certified so from the Culinary Institute of NAPA. You've worked for many other families too in the wine business, including the well known Gallows. Blake Welcome, Welcome, how are you? Hey?
Thank you so much for having me today. And you know, since it's Friday, I wanted to start off just cheersing you with.
Right here. Oh my god.
I feel like she's seen Leonard do this a few times on our show. Yeah, learned from the best.
I love you, I love you, but I do resent that there wasn't one cent to us. That's all I'm good to say.
I know.
I'm just going to say I think the interstate liquor laws that's a big issue, truly.
That is true. Yeah, well, maybe you know right here in sprits season now, so I'm excited.
Hey, talk to us though about the environment before we get into the summer season, what people are interested in terms of wines and spirits, But talk to us about the consumer, what you guys are seeing.
Yeah. Well, you know, I was the other day just visiting one of our wine suppliers and he was saying that it costs him over two thousand dollars more just to get a container of wine here into the US right now. And that's you know, just one part of the whole transportation piece, you know, for getting wine into our wine stores.
Wow.
So you couple that with actually selling the wine in a time when we're hearing more and more about young people not drinking as much. This idea of like, you know, dry January actually lasting the entire year. What does that mean for the overall business?
Well, you know, you also see customers here on the store and I was just talking to a lady the other day who was just talking about how much more it cost her to fill up her huge you know van that she drives with all her kids. So you know, we you know, everyone here on the store floor is definitely feeling it. I think one good thing and I was hearing all the stock prices before. But about being a family business is that we can you know, work
with our suppliers and hold those costs. In a lot of instances will split, you know, that transportation cost with our suppliers, so we can keep prices here on our store floor family friendly.
And you guys have not yet seen price increases. My understanding is due to fuel.
Correct yes, we have not, you know here in the wine business, as you started off with the tariffs that was big last year and for this year, really no one wants to raise the price of wine right now. And I always look, this is a great new rose that just came in. It's a new, fresh vintage. But you know, we're retailing this under fifteen dollars. And if I were to go and sell it over fifteen dollars,
what happens to sales is they go down. So you really have to be price sensitive with those barriers there. And we look at it as hopefully a temporary thing, and you know, trying to look at the longer picture.
Is the idea on it with a product like that, and if you know, if I'm thinking about margins correctly, that you take a little bit of a hit there, but you get people in the store to buy that, and then they buy other things that don't have as big as that have bigger margins.
Yes.
Well, And one of the things that I love doing is I'm like a little you know, wine detective out there, but I love going Every year we go to a wine show, either in Paris or in Italy, and we get to meet firsthand with a lot of these multi generational families who are making unbelievable wine and we get to bring them back and sell them in our stores. And really they are wines that over deliver for the price, and we often say they taste like their twice the price.
So really trying to bring not only the price points but also the story back for our customers because we think that now more than ever, that's what customers want to hear about.
I'm always amazed, like when you're over in Europe or Paris and you just order i don't know, just a little wine, nothing big, and it's just great. Like I feel like, over the years and you know, this this industry blake, it just feels like, you know, we keep getting told you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a great bottle of wine.
Yep, no you don't. And you know right here this is this is a course of kin rose that I have and this is also one of our best sellers. It's a provence rose under fifteen dollars. A female winemaker. She won the top one hundred winemaker, you know, one of the top one hundred wine makers in the world. She was awarded a couple of years ago. So there's great value out there. You do have to, you know,
spend time looking for it. But that's what we really strive to do for our customers here on the store floor, as well as educate them.
So let's talk a little bit about the next generation of Stu Leonards and sort of the timeline for you and your cousin taking over. And also I'm curious about with a background in wine and spirits, what you can then do in your approach to the grocery business, an historically low margin business, a very challenging business that you know you have to work with the ups and downs of the economy in the macroeconomic environment. What is your plan for Stu Leonards when you take it over.
You know, yesterday all of my cousins and my Dad. You know, it was work, but we got to spend the day all together in the city listening to other family businesses talk and it was a really awesome day. But one of the biggest takeaways I had listening to Jim Purdue speak and we got to meet him afterwards, and hearing Enterprise as well and panneda express. They all stick to their core values, so no matter what happens,
is sticking to their core values. And when I look back at our business today, you know, I grew up drinking milk from Stews, and my kids today they're also drinking milk from Stews, but it's organic. And so you know, if we had twenty years ago tried selling organic milk, it would have been way too expensive to really for
our customers at that time. But we've evolved and so it's kind of just this slow evolution over time, and that's you know, one of the things that always sticks out to me is that my kids are drinking organical milk.
Now. I just want to mention. We have a headline crossing from Reuters SpaceX picks the NASDAC as it's listing venue for its massive upcoming IPO on that did you guys. Do you guys ever think about going public.
We've definitely had offers and we have you know, offers either go into partnerships or to be purchased, and it's always something we think about because in my generation it went from four in my dad's generation now to over thirteen of us and now in the fourth generation there's over twenty two great grandkids. So it's definitely something we
always think about. But really what we want, and you know, my cousins and I all just met recently to talk about this, is we really want to keep this a family business and want to continue you know, the decisions we get to make every day are really you know, ones that we don't have to rely on anyone else for that. So listen.
So fun to catch up with you, stay in touch. Thank you very much, especially as we kick off the summer season. Blake Leonard, she's the president of Stu Leonard's Wan and Spirits, joining us at there in Connecticut