People Who Don’t Shop Are Trying To Create Private Labels For People Who Do

Since I’ve been old enough to understand money, I’ve wanted to spend it.

My earliest (and some of my happiest) memories involve getting in the car with my parents, driving to the nearest toy store, and spending whatever birthday money I had on something shiny and new. Forty-plus years later, I’m still just as incentivized by shopping as I was back then.

When I became a wine and spirits retail buyer at the age of twenty-eight, it wasn’t my product knowledge that guided me. I wasn’t a wine or whiskey expert back then, and—while I’ve learned a few things over my time in the industry—I wouldn’t call myself an expert today. The reason I was fairly successful in my position as a buyer is because, at heart, I’ve always been a shopper.

Deciding what to offer was easy: “What would I want if I was shopping here?” On most days, I was my own biggest customer. As it turned out, the people who shopped with me wanted the same things I did. What luck! All I had to do was source and secure the bottles that excited me personally, write about them with a genuine sense of passion and excitability (which is very much my natural personality), and the sales took care of themselves.

Yet, when I look around the wine and spirits retail space in 2025, both as a consumer and a professional, I see a glaring problem that is worsening by the day: retail private labels are becoming more the rule then the exception. Not that I have an issue with private labels, mind you. In many instances, a merchant’s own selection or curation can provide incredible value and utility if they’ve done their homework, made a deal, and maybe pulled a few strings in the process.

However, based on what I’ve seen in the market over the last year, it seems as if the people in charge of contracting these private labels either don’t drink much alcohol, or think the general public has lower standards. The labels are questionable, the products are generic, and the stories are meaningless—where’s the raison d'etre?! More importantly, who are the target consumers for these products? It’s as if they were designed by people who don’t shop!

Based on my experience with high-level industry professionals, they often fall into one of two camps:

1) they’re not savvy consumers

2) they believe private label consumers only care about the quality-to-value aspect, so branding, aesthetics, and other attributes don’t really matter

Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done about the first group. If you’re not inspired by consumerism, then you have no business creating products for wine and spirits consumers—period. That being said, it’s an unavoidable byproduct of today’s business world. I recently rode to the airport with someone who wanted to start a business for cat lovers, but hated cats himself. “Then why do you want to start a business for cat lovers,” I asked with a confused look on my face.

“Because studies show cat lovers spend money,” he answered back, as if I was the imbecile.

Make no mistake, money is the name of the game with private labels. Only in rare instances are they created out of passion. The entire point is to gain exclusivity, control production, and boost your sales margins. That’s why Whole Foods has its own pasta. That’s why Target makes its own clothes. Commodities will always have alternative options, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun, interesting, and delicious!

Commodifying a fine wine or whiskey is a perilous process in today’s market. It needs to split hairs. For example, I don’t mind sipping on glass of private label rosé while I’m cooking, or making a cocktail with a private label vodka on a Tuesday evening. Those are basic necessities for my health and sanity, much like rice, beans, or bread. In those situations, private label wines and spirits offer utility.

My issue stems from the boutique private label sector that so desperately wants me to believe their nameless, faceless private label experience is equal to the one I would receive from an established producer or a recognizable tier of quality.

Their pitch: why purchase Maker’s Mark Bourbon when you can purchase our private label version (that tastes just as good!) for half the price?

Good question! Here’s my short answer:

• Maker’s Mark is an established distillery with a very distinctive history and recipe, both of which give me a greater understanding of Bourbon as a category

• Because I now better understand the flavor of Maker’s Mark and why it tastes the way it does, I’m now better equipped to make educated decisions for myself, as well as share ideas and opinions with friends and colleagues

• The litany of information about both the history and production of Maker’s Mark available to me online adds to my enjoyment of the whiskey itself

• Bourbon as a category becomes more enjoyable when I have a greater grasp of the key producers and what makes each of them unique

If you understand the current market for boutique Bourbon, then you know the modern consumer is motivated by experience, a passion for quality, the uniqueness of the product, and its place in both history and pop culture. That’s what today’s Bourbon consumers want. To take those things away from them is to completely destroy the value proposition of the bottle and the experience. A generic Bourbon entirely without context might as well be vodka.

The same goes for other historic and heralded wine and spirits categories like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tequila, or Scotch. Personally, I don’t drink much “everyday” Bordeaux or Burgundy anymore. If I’m gonna drink Bordeaux, I’m going all in—Lynch Bages, Haut Bailly, etc—so that I can have a real experience.

Ditto for Burgundy. Give me a prestige bottle so I can make a real meal out of it. So that I can celebrate it! Ponder it. Evaluate it, and add it to my overall wisdom. If I’m not drinking a fine bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy, I’ll just drink something else.

That might sound a tad elitist, but let me assure you: I’m far from alone with this line of thinking.

Just this past week, I sat behind a table and poured for one of my clients at a local whiskey event and there was no shortage of blue collar customers ready to hand over $100 for a fine bottle of Bourbon. As one guy told me: “I don’t spend much money on clothes or food, but I’ve always got money for a good bottle of whiskey.”

In a troubled economy with inflation on the radar, business owners immediately pivot to value. They scramble to offer the consumer a more affordable option and drop their prices as a result. People have less money, so they want to save money, right?

It sounds logical, but it hasn’t been my experience as of late.

When times are tough, consumers may cut back on casual purchases, but they won’t trade down for important experiences. Wine and spirits consumers in particular have trended towards premium products for the last decade, across all socio-economic categories and age groups. The motivations for these consumers have changed entirely. They recognize quality, they know when a price is too high, and they’re incredibly quick to point out a better deal elsewhere.

In short, they’ve become true shoppers, whether they know it or not. They’ve spent the last five years tracking down every bottle of Blanton’s and Eagle Rare within a 50 mile radius of their home. Those instincts don’t just turn off in the face of adversity.

COVID only hastened this evolution. After years of online shopping, Zoom tastings, message board posts, and social media videos, the bar for impressing the modern consumer has never been higher. The sophistication and expectation for quality has never been greater. If you’re going to compete for the admiration and mindshare of the modern wine and spirits consumers with a bespoke private label, you’d better bring your A game.

If it’s not something you’d be excited to drink yourself, as a wine and spirits professional, then consumers aren’t going to be excited either.

-David Driscoll