My kind of retail therapy

I know a lot of women who love to shop.  They don't always purchase a lot, but they can shop for hours.  Hours trying on shoes, clothes, checking out accessories. I know women who watch the late night shopping channel and buy stuff all the time.  Sometimes they return it, but they keep on shopping.  Some women shop catalogs, dozens of catalogs.

I am not one of those women. Clothes never look good on me so I am not a fan of clothes shopping. Shoes and accessories, don't see the point of spending much time on these things.  Catalogs, sometimes a shirt from LL Bean, but not much else.  However, I do have one retail store that I love, love, love and it is as therapeutic as any of the above.

It is Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa.  Yes, bottles and bottles of, you guessed it: alcohol.  Now, we all know I can drink a lot and sometimes do but I don't consider myself a problem drinker.  My consumption doesn't interfere with my regular life. In fact, my alcohol consumption makes my regular life a lot better!  But back to Bottle Barn. It's a huge open space, barn-like (!) and has more booze than a trainload of Harley Davidson riders.  Everything is there: beer, wine, spirits, rot gut, dessert wine, kosher wine, fruit wine and spirits, and on and on.  Just wandering down the bourbon aisle makes me happy, and I don't even have to buy anything!  I just like seeing what's on the market now, what new creations are popping up for our sipping pleasure.

The wine selection is international in scope and very fair in pricing.  Most of the wines I get are under $10 and I have rarely been disappointed.  Tons of wine from Chile and Argentina, all European countries and even South America.  I have had really good unoaked Chardonnay, great Malbec, you name it.  If you have the bucks you can buy pricey stuff as well.  Again, just checking out the selections makes me smile.

The only thing that would make the experience better would be if Bottle Barn did what Costco does:  give you free samples.  The place doesn't have a lot of extra floor space but they could certainly scoot a few wine cases over and have a little card table where the customers could sample new and exciting wines!  (Honestly, the Whole Food Market in Texas actually does this and it makes spending the whole paycheck a lot more pleasant!)  Bottle Barn hasn't embraced the free sample idea yet but I am not giving up hope.  

They will also order anything for you.  I purchased a delicious rye whiskey there (True West Double Rye) but when I went back several days weeks later to get another bottle, there were none on the shelf!  However, they were happy to order some and they called me when my bottle arrived. Asking them to deliver it to my door was a little over the top, but I expect that one day delivery service will be available as well.  Or at least curbside pick-up.

So, that's my take on retail therapy. You can have your shoe store, your mall of clothing stores, all the catalog shopping you can handle.  Give me my Bottle Barn and I am a happy girl.   

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