Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: About a year ago, we were kind of coming off
Speaker 2: Trump's President Trump's Liberation Day, higher or uncertain tariff environment.
Speaker 2: It was. We were kind of up in the air
Speaker 2: about a lot of things. And at the time we
Speaker 2: were forecasting put out a story at Bloomberg just ahead
Speaker 2: of Memorial Day that the price of a cook atte
Speaker 2: was going up.
Speaker 3: B prices were an issue.
Speaker 2: Then too, yes, right, and that was well. The story
Speaker 2: got into a lot of the issues were domestic ones
Speaker 2: that were impacting the prices of things. And then I
Speaker 2: think about this year, Tim, what's going on?
Speaker 3: Okay, us warning ron higher energy prices, higher gas prices,
Speaker 3: inflation prints just this week reminding us that inflation is
Speaker 3: outpacing wage growth. Not so good.
Speaker 2: That's so great. So what does it mean for our
Speaker 2: summer picnics as we get ready, please please to kick
Speaker 2: off summer. It's just around the corner.
Speaker 3: It was a felt like forty five this morning. That
Speaker 3: was to feel like temperature fifty one degrees in New York.
Speaker 2: I still head layers. I hear it's going to be
Speaker 2: like eighty degrees on Sunday. Yep for more, let's head
Speaker 2: to Stu Leonards Fine Wines and spirit Store. It is
Speaker 2: in Norwalk, Connecticut. That's where we find Blake Leonard. She's
Speaker 2: the president of Stu Leonard's Wines and Spirits. She's also
Speaker 2: part of the next generation that will take over running
Speaker 2: the store founded by her grandfather. She will take the
Speaker 2: reins as president along with a cousin from her dad,
Speaker 2: Stu Leonard Junior, keeping it in the family. I love
Speaker 2: that you are a certified so from the Culinary Institute
Speaker 2: of NAPA. You've worked for many other families too in
Speaker 2: the wine business, including the well known Gallows. Blake Welcome, Welcome,
Speaker 2: how are you? Hey?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me today. And you know,
Speaker 1: since it's Friday, I wanted to start off just cheersing
Speaker 1: you with.
Speaker 2: Right here. Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I feel like she's seen Leonard do this a few
Speaker 3: times on our show. Yeah, learned from the best.
Speaker 2: I love you, I love you, but I do resent
Speaker 2: that there wasn't one cent to us. That's all I'm
Speaker 2: good to say.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to say I think the interstate liquor
Speaker 3: laws that's a big issue, truly.
Speaker 1: That is true. Yeah, well, maybe you know right here
Speaker 1: in sprits season now, so I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Hey, talk to us though about the environment before we
Speaker 2: get into the summer season, what people are interested in
Speaker 2: terms of wines and spirits, But talk to us about
Speaker 2: the consumer, what you guys are seeing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, I was the other day just
Speaker 1: visiting one of our wine suppliers and he was saying
Speaker 1: that it costs him over two thousand dollars more just
Speaker 1: to get a container of wine here into the US
Speaker 1: right now. And that's you know, just one part of
Speaker 1: the whole transportation piece, you know, for getting wine into
Speaker 1: our wine stores.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So you couple that with actually selling the wine in
Speaker 3: a time when we're hearing more and more about young
Speaker 3: people not drinking as much. This idea of like, you know,
Speaker 3: dry January actually lasting the entire year. What does that
Speaker 3: mean for the overall business?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, you also see customers here on the
Speaker 1: store and I was just talking to a lady the
Speaker 1: other day who was just talking about how much more
Speaker 1: it cost her to fill up her huge you know
Speaker 1: van that she drives with all her kids. So you know,
Speaker 1: we you know, everyone here on the store floor is
Speaker 1: definitely feeling it. I think one good thing and I
Speaker 1: was hearing all the stock prices before. But about being
Speaker 1: a family business is that we can you know, work
Speaker 1: with our suppliers and hold those costs. In a lot
Speaker 1: of instances will split, you know, that transportation cost with
Speaker 1: our suppliers, so we can keep prices here on our
Speaker 1: store floor family friendly.
Speaker 2: And you guys have not yet seen price increases. My
Speaker 2: understanding is due to fuel.
Speaker 1: Correct yes, we have not, you know here in the
Speaker 1: wine business, as you started off with the tariffs that
Speaker 1: was big last year and for this year, really no
Speaker 1: one wants to raise the price of wine right now.
Speaker 1: And I always look, this is a great new rose
Speaker 1: that just came in. It's a new, fresh vintage. But
Speaker 1: you know, we're retailing this under fifteen dollars. And if
Speaker 1: I were to go and sell it over fifteen dollars,
Speaker 1: what happens to sales is they go down. So you
Speaker 1: really have to be price sensitive with those barriers there.
Speaker 1: And we look at it as hopefully a temporary thing,
Speaker 1: and you know, trying to look at the longer picture.
Speaker 3: Is the idea on it with a product like that,
Speaker 3: and if you know, if I'm thinking about margins correctly,
Speaker 3: that you take a little bit of a hit there,
Speaker 3: but you get people in the store to buy that,
Speaker 3: and then they buy other things that don't have as
Speaker 3: big as that have bigger margins.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Well, And one of the things that I love doing
Speaker 1: is I'm like a little you know, wine detective out there,
Speaker 1: but I love going Every year we go to a
Speaker 1: wine show, either in Paris or in Italy, and we
Speaker 1: get to meet firsthand with a lot of these multi
Speaker 1: generational families who are making unbelievable wine and we get
Speaker 1: to bring them back and sell them in our stores.
Speaker 1: And really they are wines that over deliver for the price,
Speaker 1: and we often say they taste like their twice the price.
Speaker 1: So really trying to bring not only the price points
Speaker 1: but also the story back for our customers because we
Speaker 1: think that now more than ever, that's what customers want
Speaker 1: to hear about.
Speaker 2: I'm always amazed, like when you're over in Europe or
Speaker 2: Paris and you just order i don't know, just a
Speaker 2: little wine, nothing big, and it's just great. Like I
Speaker 2: feel like, over the years and you know, this this
Speaker 2: industry blake, it just feels like, you know, we keep
Speaker 2: getting told you don't have to spend a lot of
Speaker 2: money to get a great bottle of wine.
Speaker 1: Yep, no you don't. And you know right here this
Speaker 1: is this is a course of kin rose that I
Speaker 1: have and this is also one of our best sellers.
Speaker 1: It's a provence rose under fifteen dollars. A female winemaker.
Speaker 1: She won the top one hundred winemaker, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the top one hundred wine makers in the world.
Speaker 1: She was awarded a couple of years ago. So there's
Speaker 1: great value out there. You do have to, you know,
Speaker 1: spend time looking for it. But that's what we really
Speaker 1: strive to do for our customers here on the store floor,
Speaker 1: as well as educate them.
Speaker 3: So let's talk a little bit about the next generation
Speaker 3: of Stu Leonards and sort of the timeline for you
Speaker 3: and your cousin taking over. And also I'm curious about
Speaker 3: with a background in wine and spirits, what you can
Speaker 3: then do in your approach to the grocery business, an
Speaker 3: historically low margin business, a very challenging business that you
Speaker 3: know you have to work with the ups and downs
Speaker 3: of the economy in the macroeconomic environment. What is your
Speaker 3: plan for Stu Leonards when you take it over.
Speaker 1: You know, yesterday all of my cousins and my Dad.
Speaker 1: You know, it was work, but we got to spend
Speaker 1: the day all together in the city listening to other
Speaker 1: family businesses talk and it was a really awesome day.
Speaker 1: But one of the biggest takeaways I had listening to
Speaker 1: Jim Purdue speak and we got to meet him afterwards,
Speaker 1: and hearing Enterprise as well and panneda express. They all
Speaker 1: stick to their core values, so no matter what happens,
Speaker 1: is sticking to their core values. And when I look
Speaker 1: back at our business today, you know, I grew up
Speaker 1: drinking milk from Stews, and my kids today they're also
Speaker 1: drinking milk from Stews, but it's organic. And so you know,
Speaker 1: if we had twenty years ago tried selling organic milk,
Speaker 1: it would have been way too expensive to really for
Speaker 1: our customers at that time. But we've evolved and so
Speaker 1: it's kind of just this slow evolution over time, and
Speaker 1: that's you know, one of the things that always sticks
Speaker 1: out to me is that my kids are drinking organical milk.
Speaker 2: Now. I just want to mention. We have a headline
Speaker 2: crossing from Reuters SpaceX picks the NASDAC as it's listing
Speaker 2: venue for its massive upcoming IPO on that did you guys.
Speaker 2: Do you guys ever think about going public.
Speaker 1: We've definitely had offers and we have you know, offers
Speaker 1: either go into partnerships or to be purchased, and it's
Speaker 1: always something we think about because in my generation it
Speaker 1: went from four in my dad's generation now to over
Speaker 1: thirteen of us and now in the fourth generation there's
Speaker 1: over twenty two great grandkids. So it's definitely something we
Speaker 1: always think about. But really what we want, and you know,
Speaker 1: my cousins and I all just met recently to talk
Speaker 1: about this, is we really want to keep this a
Speaker 1: family business and want to continue you know, the decisions
Speaker 1: we get to make every day are really you know,
Speaker 1: ones that we don't have to rely on anyone else
Speaker 1: for that. So listen.
Speaker 2: So fun to catch up with you, stay in touch.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, especially as we kick off the
Speaker 2: summer season. Blake Leonard, she's the president of Stu Leonard's
Speaker 2: Wan and Spirits, joining us at there in Connecticut