84
Beverage Media
December 2012
www.BevNetwork.com
LAST
CALL
Y E A R S
The Year
was... 2000
BY W. R. TISH
In December of 2000, one year after
the Great Millennium Champagne
Shortage That Wasn’t,
Beverage
Media
reported on the state of the
bubbly market.
Our cover story noted that sales
in the early part of the year were
significantly off, primarily due to the
Millennium hangover (ABC Fine
Wine and Spirits in Florida held
statewide Champagne and chocolate
tastings to move excess inventory).
On the brighter side, the high end of
the sector was looking up.
Being a year-end issue, we also
featured photo galleries of distributor
shows hosted by Peerless, Charmer,
Eber Bros. and Cazanove Opici—
plus the annual dinners held by the
Retailers Alliance and Metropolitan
Package Store Association.
A sign of how fast our industry
can change: the December 2000 is-
sue included a news item about Ma-
jor Peters’ new cocktail mixes (Rum
Runner and Banana Daiquiri); the
exploding RTS and RTD category
of today is light years beyond what
suppliers imagined 12 years ago.
Interestingly, we also featured
an “E-Commerce Information Page”
about the dawning age of online
ordering. Real-time inventory, a
noble goal back then, is a reality
today as the Beverage Network just
last month unveiled The Cellar, the
latest enhancement at our website.
This new tool, with state-of-the-art
search
and
order capacities, is prom-
ising to make online ordering easier
and faster than ever.
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