Wine Rack Store Blog

Since we stated that we make custom wine racks, we have been asked numerous times to build something special for our customers. Most recently we had a customer replace her old garbage compactor with a custom wine rack in her kitchen. We made the 6 shelves 14 3/4 inches wide so that the wood wine rack shelves would fit perfectly. The cost including the shelves and the little supports that the shelves sit on, was only $60.00 delivered.

We dare anybody else to do custom quality wine racks this cheaply. Most people would spend twice that on the wood alone. Usually the turn around time is very quick as well. In this case it was only 2 days before we shipped out the custom unit.

So if you have an old garbage compactor, or a underutilized cabinet, we can make a wine rack to fit your space. We also do lots of closet conversions as well. We can make your custom wine cellar for remarkably little. Just call us at 866-676-4028 and we will be happy to help.

Labels: closet, custom, wine cellar, wine rack

Wow, I can't believe it! Experts are professing the same solution to the current economic crisis as what we proposed. It is time for the government to lend directly to the home mortgagee. This creates significant sums of money available to the homeowner, in the form of interest savings. It does not cost the Government one red cent. Even an additional further stimulus package will fail miserably, as folks will put the money on their overdue credit card bill. For more details, and there isn't a whole lot of them, see our blog entry titled "Wine Rack Store Is Thinking That Tax Cuts Will Not Work." Send the suggestion to your Federal Representative and lets get the ball rolling!

Labels: economic crisis, stimulus plan, wine rack store

Within minutes of announcing that we do custom wine racks, we received a flurry of inquiries. Not only from the US, but also from as far away as Australia. In many cases the cost for a custom wine rack is very little over the cost of our regular products. So give the Wine Rack Store a call at 866-676-4028 and tell us what you need.

Remember, we aim to provide superlative customer service. If for some reason you are missing parts or receive a damaged part just let us know. Usually we can ship a replacement the next business day or sooner. Hey sometimes s--t happens, and we are here to help. We have been providing goods and services for over 14 years, and it is this level of service and quality products which separates us from our competitors.

Labels: custom, customer service, wine racks, WineRackStore.com

We at the Wine Rack Store are pleased to announce that we offer a service of creating custom wine racks. We can make then to fit your space. The other great news is that we do it usually for just a few dollars more than one of our production models. So here is what you do.

Step (1) Take a measurement of your space.
Step (2) Take a look at our many different models and decide which ones you would like customized.
Step (3) Call us at 866-676-4028 We will get the vital information from steps 1 and 2 and discuss the project with you. We will on that call give you a price for your customized unit. Most customized units will take a couple of weeks or less to make right here at our new facility.

Best of all you will be pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive it will be to get a customized wine rack.

Labels: custom, wine rack, wine rack store, WineRackStore.com

Today I got a Call from my son Matt and he said the company he works for has canceled their annual Christmas Party. No big deal in this economy I thought. The news could have been far worse. He could have called to say his job was terminated. The economy is shedding a lot of jobs. If the "domestic" automobile companies are allowed to fail you are looking at 3 million more jobs lost. Ouch!

I just can not see how tax breaks is going to halt the economic slid. Everybody thinks they pay too much in taxes. I happen to know that I pay more taxes than nearly anybody in the States. That was joke...I hope.

Paying fewer taxes will not put more money into the economy now. The earliest anybody is going to see a check is late spring. Not nearly fast enough to save millions of people from losing their jobs.I have been thinking some more about how the government can put billions of money directly into the economy now, and it won't cost the taxpayer one red cent.

The government should take over all mortgages now that are in good standing. Stay with me here. The government loans money to the banks at 1 percent, who in turn lend money out as mortgages, at say 5 percent today. How about the government do the job of lending directly to the home owners. It could lend it out a 2.5 percent to more than cover it's costs. It would increase immediately the money in every home owners pocket immediately and in the long term. Plus the government doesn't have to go into debt to do it. Just take the banks out of the mortgage business. Would that be so bad?

Now what about the bad mortgages that the banks have now. The banks are already trying to put those people behind on their payments on new terms and extending the term of their mortgages. I think those plans are "pie in the sky" and of little help for those people that are now losing their homes. Plus the thousands of additional people that will lose their jobs in the future because of the recession. I think you have to get a realistic valuation of the home as of today and make the bank buy down the mortgage. They are getting hundreds of billions from the government anyway. The home owners would then apply to the government for a mortgage to pay out the bank.

The current system just does not make sense. It just perpetuates the punishment of all homeowners. Even those that have been able to stay current are being punished by the erosion home values. Lets get America moving again.

This to me makes more sense than a tax cut. Lets give American families hundreds of dollars a month, through lower mortgage costs and they will spend it to stimulate the economy now and for years to come. Remember this does not cost the taxpayer 1 more dollar than has already been proposed in the Great October 2008 Bailout. Let me know what you think.

For those that are wondering about the picture. It shows a house under water, which millions of home owners are right now because they owe more than what their home is worth.

Labels: economy, house, mortgage, stimulous, wine rack store

With the down turn in the economy the scumballs are out. Recently, we had an order that just seemed weird. It went against my gut feeling. The customer only communicated by email. Not a big deal really, other than he wouldn't give us a telephone number despite our request for one. He also had 2 credit cards that he used to pay for the order. Which again, in itself is not a big deal, but things are pointing in a certain direction. After the credit cards being declined, we emailed the customer saying they were declined. We later submitted them and the transactions were approved. Against my gut feeling, we shipped $3,300.00 of wine racks.

This morning we got a call from the FedEx driver in Fort Worth, TX. She was looking for the customer. She contacted us, because we always put our telephone number on the label, if no other one is available. We told the driver that we would try to contact the customer and tell him to contact the driver directly, who had given us her number. We then emailed the customer to tell him to contact the driver. Luckily he didn't!

About an hour later the owner of one of the credit cards, gave us call, to say she had no idea what the charge was about. She stated emphatically that it had nothing to do with her. Nor did she know the name the customer had given us.

We immediately contacted FedEx and UPS and asked them to turn around the shipments, which luckily they did.

I am not sure how the customer had thought they could have benefited from this. He used an address of a vacant lot. Maybe he thought he could contact FedEx and meet the driver somewhere else. We have had that happen before. We just don't know for sure, how they figured they could have benefited.

This sort of transaction is very rare. The give away that something was wrong, was the fact the customer refused to give us a telephone number. The only time we get "email" orders is when the transaction has a overseas destination. Even then, the customer always gives us a phone number or they call us. Just this morning we had a phone order to New Zealand for multiple units of the 144 Bottle Instant Cellar wine rack.

I just don't get why somebody goes to the trouble to do this. It is more harrassment, than a way to make money. In any case we were able to react quickly, to make sure they were not able to benefit from this. The Wine Rack Store stand committed to protecting not only ourselves, but also our customers.

We at the Wine Rack Store are preparing for the worst. We aren't whacked out survivalists or expecting the next big disaster, but we want to be ready for ever increasing failures in our energy infrastructure. We suffer from almost regular power failures. At least 8 times a year we lose power. No matter the reason, be it somebody plowing into a power pole or a tree falling over the power lines we lose our power frequently.

Last year we purchased a large emergency generator. Currently it requires us to manually switch off the utility power, so that the electricity we generate does not go onto the grid and potentially injure a repairman. When the utility power is restored, we manually switch over the power from the emergency generator to utility power and shutdown the generator.

Our emergency generator uses propane. We store approximately 2 days worth of propane at any given time. There is three reasons why we use propane. The first is that it is a far cleaner fuel to burn than either diesel or gasoline. As you know we are constantly trying to reduce our carbon footprint in practical terms. So that is a big plus! Also because propane is much cleaner, it is easier on our equipment and therefore requires far less maintenance. The third reason is the ease of storage. We don't have to worry about it, with refueling regularly scheduled, or in a case of a prolonged outage we can call the distributor for a fill up.

Late this fall we are making some significant improvements. We are going to move our generator to another location and wire it for automatic switching. No more standing around in the hurricane force winds and pelting rain, to start it up and shut it down. In addition we are increasing our propane storage by over 20 times, so that we can run the generator for over 30 days if needed.

We certainly hope that we will never need the extra capacity, but what is the saying, better safe than sorry. Most of you are probably saying, this is way over the top, but, we need electricity and we go through a lot of it. Our shops, wells, not to mention office all require electricity to work and be productive. If there is no electricity, how do we make our wine racks, or wine accessories or operate our color and package lines. If the lights aren't on we loose money and have to send our folks home. I think you get the idea.

Labels: generator, stain colors, wells, wine rack store

Now I have read that the American "Big 3" automakers are looking for another 50 Billion dollars to tide them over, until the market for their products becomes profitable. While I am in favor of a bailout where does it end? There has to be a limit put on the bailout. Twenty five Billion has quickly become 50 Billion, and does that become 100 Billion in 6 months? Somebody in Government has to conduct a study and say that at some point, it isn't worth the expense. Actually this has already been done, but I have heard of no results.

Which reminds me. Where is our piece of the bailout pie? Hey, all businesses could use some help to weather this financial storm. A stimulus like the last round will not give us the sustainable growth the economy needs. It had an affect of 3-4 months only. I would like to see some sort of mortgage help for all home owners, maybe a low, low interest rate on two residences, plus while you are at it how about throwing a few hundred billion at the decaying infrastructure in the US. We all need upgraded roads, bridges, mass transit, electrical grid etc. Things are falling apart, and we will be forced to spend the money sometime in the near future. Also, now is the time to start serious alternative energy research and development. Huge dollars I know, but we are headed towards a depression and we need to do everything we can to avoid that.

So, we at the WineRackStore.com are very concerned about the economy. People that aren't working, are not likely to buy our Premium Wine Racks nor other non essential items. Plus there are serious social issues stemming from having lots of unemployed. More welfare, more crime, more drugs, all sorts of social issues we don't want increasing. Many Americans are looking at the election of Mr. Obama as a chance to right many wrongs and this "excitement and hope" needs to be sustained for as long as possible.

Labels: Mr. Obama, Premium wine racks, WineRackStore.com

I just turned on CNN and there was a discussion panel talking whether the US Government should give GM, Ford and Chrysler billions of dollars, so that they can survive. Everybody knows that the downturn in the economy has effected all companies. Major brick and morter retailers are hurting with sales volumes less than 30 years ago. Likewise the auto industry is seeing significantly fewer sales. The latest sales figures show that GM is down 45% from the same period a year ago. I know that one argument is that they have made their own bed by making products that are no longer relevant in the new economy. However their list of problems are more than just that. The credit crunch has prevented many of their customers from purchasing their cars and trucks.

So what are choices?

(A) We can let the auto companies go bankrupt, which guarantees their demise. Few potential customers want to spend their hard earned money on a product and know that the company has a good chance to be out of business in the near future. What happens when they have problems or go to trade in their vehicle. Then, there is not just the money issues. What about the hundreds of thousands of people whose income comes either directly or indirectly from GM, Ford and Chrysler. What if they have no jobs?

(B) The government bails out the auto companies. Spends at least $25 billion, over and above the billions that they have already pledged to the domestic auto industry. They have obviously mismanaged their businesses. What prevents them from "blowing" the billions of dollars, and having to return to Governement for further cash injections. The public coiffers are empty. Between the needless war in Iraq, the bailout of the insurance companies and banks. The country has spent trillions of dollars.

This is truly a tough decision. There is already record unemployment (6.5%). To add hundreds 0f thousands of folks to the unempolyment lines would be even harder on an ecomony already in a depression. To pump billions of good money into poorly managed companies is irresponsible. Plus many would argue that America has come to terms with it's changing economy and this is just another sign of that change.

Either choice is fraught with risk.

I guess you have to make a stand. To let the companies fail would be catastrophic to the economy, and even bigger blow to the American society. The problems with the economy ares immense. We hear the uncertainity when we speak to our customers when they are purchasing our wine racks and wine charms. People don't know where the country is going. The people don't need more of their icons to fall.

If the Government is going to give the automobile companies billions, we need to have oversight in what they do. Lets make sure their management is going to change and that they create products which are in tune with the goals of society. Vehicles that have significantly better mileage. Lets make sure the quality standards are equal or better than their competitors. Only then will their futures be somewhat protected. Just like the Wine Rack Store which adds to it's product lines with wine racks and wine accessories that our customers want.

We would love to hear what you think.

Labels: Wine Charms, wine rack, wine rack store

Every boy and girl in America should know about how the Pilgrims, came to America. Our friends at Wikipedia, have an excellent history of people, events, and dates of how the Pilgrims came to our country as well as their struggles of which there was many. Imagine their daunting task. Where just finding food to survive was very hard.

The Wine Rack Store has a Thanksgiving Wine charm set to help celebrate the coming of the Pilgrims. It is perfect for a gift or any social event for this holiday. So when you are sitting around the big ol' bird or whatever you choose to have, raise a glass to our forefathers and give a toast, to those hard working folks that helped create America into the great nation it is today.

Labels: Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, Wine Charms, wine rack store

At the risk of being incredibly boring, you need to VOTE! That is correct people have taken this right way to haphazardly over the past few elections. This is the only way you can set teh record straight. Voice your opinion. Right, left or the middle, wherever you stand exercise your right.

Heavy even record turnout is expected at polling stations. I guess they are expecting massive lineups with voters waiting many hours. I just do not know why that is? Can't major retailers process millions of people per day? You would think that this wouldn't be a problem with the ability of touch screens and the like. I figure one day you will touch the screen and the computer would recognize your fingerprint. Then a listing of candidates would be come up, with a short description. You would vote for whoever you wanted. The computer would ensure that you couldn't vote for more than one candidate per position. After the candidates there would be a listing of initiatives. Each initiative would have a short yet clear description. no more double talk designed to fool voters.

Who is going to make sure this happens fairly? A bureaucracy, that ensures everybody gets the same menu and descriptions. It is their one and only job to ensure every voter gets the right vote that is in a totally fair enviroment. That's my five cents worth.

This doesn't have much to do with a wine rack. However the Wine Rack Store firmly believes in our right to cast our votes, and by doing so help determine our collective futures.

Labels: Vote, wine rack, wine rack store