An article in yesterday’s Union-Bulletin by business reporter, Vicki Hillhouse, reported that Wal-Mart officials were in Walla Walla last week to find local wineries interested in having their wines in the College Place store. It is part of a effort to reflect more of the regional influences in their stores. According to the article, a dozen Walla Walla wineries have agreed to have their wines listed by the store, including Whitman Cellars.

A few years ago, Costco visited Walla Walla with the idea of putting a store here. We speculated at that time what this might mean to the local wineries, imaging a scenario where people visited area wineries tasting wine but then stopped at Costco to make their purchases.

Of course, Costco is the largest wine buyer in the country with a reputation for carrying high quality brand names. It would be hard for a winery to resist the pull of that kind of buying power and therefore, hard to say no when they are on the doorstep.  Wal-Mart, on the other hand, does not share the same cache and while the volume might end up being substantial, shelf space here may not represent additional exposure across the chain.