Stemmed or stemless, THAT is the question!
Sigh….another broken wine glass, another cleanup job, another incomplete set, another wasted dollar, AARRGGHH!!
This exasperated thought is commonly shared by most of us who love our wine, but would rather save our hard-earned cash to put toward the next bottle or case, right? Well the irony of this situation is that we usually keep making the same mistakes over and over again, but why? This is such an annoying trait we possess as human-beings – not learning from our mistakes. All the motivational speakers, leaders and gurus of the world, always advise that we should learn from our mistakes so we don’t keep repeating them, which is brilliant advice, but we don’t realize that implementing this into only ONE area of our lives is not enough. When you feel this sense of frustration, it’s time to STOP, LEARN, DISCOVER and TAKE ACTION! The same goes for wine as with many things in life.
Cue the Stemless Wine Glass, the latest in the line of growing trends in the wine marketplace. As with many wine lovers across the globe, I too had my reservations about this seemingly ‘mickey mouse’ development standing the test of time. The traditionalists, in particular, offered the most ridicule and criticism to this modern trend and can be found all over the wine forums being derisive about the stemless wine glass. Well, Confucius said “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change”, and with every broken wine glass and its spilt contents, his words keep ringing true.
Stemless wine glasses and stemless champagne flutes are being employed not only by families and individuals, but also by a growing number of finance-savvy restaurants and entertainment establishments across the globe. Their proprietors have come to a startling realization about how much money they are literally throwing in the trash; every broken wine glass must be replaced and in a customer-sensitive market, most establishments will replace the contents for free too which means giving wine away for nothing!
When chatting to the owner of one such establishment a few weeks ago, the stemless wine glasses on his tables came up in conversation. He filled me in as to why he recently decided to do away with stemmed glasses altogether and from his very pragmatic approach, I think there will be thousands following suit very soon.
He said that in his 50-seater diner, he was disposing of nearly 1,000 wine glasses each month (recycling of course), before his investment in stemless wine glasses! I was astounded of course, but he mentioned that this had been a pretty consistent average for roughly 4 years! After doing a little math, I estimated that this amounted to nearly 48,000 wine glasses in 4 years likely costing him over $100,000!! UNREAL! So my pertinent question was obviously how much he estimated he had reduced this annual expense by, since employing stemless glasses, and his answer was pretty conclusive. He had cut down the wine glass accidents by more than 60%, which still amounts to a large amount of money but compared to $100k, this is an extraordinary saving.
Funnily enough, the most surprising statistic is that it wasn’t just the customers causing this incredible loss, but also the kitchen and service staff alike. With a multitude of staff handling each glass from pouring to cleaning, converting to the versatile stemless wine glass has allowed this particular owner to add thousands of dollars to his bottom line each year. The stemless wine glass has also added a bit of upmarket chicness to his establishment, which has even somehow attracted a bigger cross-section of patrons, meaning more sales.
The stemless wine glass is ultimately much more stable than its stemmed cousin, which means that there are far fewer accidents than with the conventional wine glass. Stems have simply become awkward and clumsy, and while their main advantage is to avoid heat transfer into your wine, most of us don’t really ‘pour’ over a glass of wine long enough for this to be an issue. Stemless wine glasses are easily stored, taking up far less space and are also far better suited for the dishwasher. Their lower centre of gravity means that your waiter(s) will have no problem whatsoever with the one-handed tray technique, and your customers or guests will no longer knock their glasses over while gesticulating about their passions over the dinner table.
A great little cash saver for businesses and homes alike, the stemless wine glass certainly gets our vote for wine product of the millennium so far.
Visit <a href=”http://stemless-wineglass.com/”>The Stemless Wine Glass site</a> to discover the widest variety of stemless wine and champagne glasses on the market. Love life, drink wine!
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