Wine Rack Store Blog

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

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

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

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

Bananas! Yes, we go bananas at the WineRackStore.com We actively try to help our customers. By doing so, we get ideas for new products, here is an example of the process.

Recently a customer asked us for a way for his really small 375ml bottles to fit into our Instant Cellar Wine Racks. His bottles have really, really small diameters. The idea we came up with was a very inexpensive kit made up of 20 pieces of thin, but very strong high density boards. They would fit into the openings so that any item or bottle (up to 3.5" diameter) could be stored in the wine rack. Easy, and extremely versatile for the customer. What could be better? Yes, we really do go bananas for our customers.

Labels: Instant Cellar Wine Rack, wine bottle storage, wine rack store

For those that call into the Wine Rack Store know that sometimes we have a melody of animals noises in the background. Of course we have dogs that make themselves frequently heard. Two of them, "Coffee" and "Zoe" belong to us. "Pinchie" belongs to Matt and Sidney Rae that work here during the day in our office.

However, there is another animal here that is less known to our customers and friends. We have a Rooster that resides in our horse stable. He is the last of a long line and sometimes very numerous family of chickens. Between the nesting Eagles and the Coyotes, he is the last one. The key to his survival is his reluctance to leave the barn. I guess he saw the demise of his brethren and learned that the further he travels the greater the chances of his being eaten. On one hand we sorry for him, as he is the Robinson Crusoe of chickens. On the other hand, he is actually in great physical shape. He has lots of food, and is protected from wind and rain, maybe he feels he is Chicken Paradise. In gratitude, every morning he tells us it is time to get up and get to work.

There is a lot of chicken decor around here. Denise has fallen in love with little chickens everywhere in our house. Pictures, metal and glass ornaments adorn what seems like every nook and cranny.

Luckily she leaves enough room for displays of our super wine racks, wine charms and accesories. We keep a selection here in the office for folks to look at. We recently had a customer come and remark on our selection of chicken stuff. I am not sure how much of that he liked, but he sure loved our quality 96 bottle Instant Wine Rack!

Labels: Chicken, Instant Wine Rack, wine rack store

Every year, we at the Wine Rack Store have a Halloween Costume Party. The party is a lot of fun. It is great to party with our friends and employees and their families. This year the party actually falls on Friday October 31st. The ghosts and goblins will be out in their glory!

So far we have been told that costumes will vary from a "Hooter" girl (you can guess "she", will be very distinctive looking) to Joe Dirt to 1970's Hippies, to many other creative home made costumes. As you can imagine, the event is very colorful.

In addition, the Wine Rack Store contributes food both donated by our guest and ourselves, to a local food bank. This just shows part of the our commitment to the community. We regularly give wine racks to charities so that they can auction and raise funds for their organizations.

Labels: charity, food bank, wine rack store, wine racks

Fall has made it's presence known at the Wine Rack Store. Two types of Apples actually. The first of course is the delicious type. We are fortunate to work and live in the State known for it's produce and especially it's apples. Washington State is far and away the largest producer of apples in the USA. Washington Apples have a quality reputation throughout a large range of different types.

The second type of Apple important to Wine Rack Store and AmazingUniverse.com Inc is the computer type. We have completed our replacement of our PC's. Not that anything was basically wrong with the PC's, but they were at the end of their useful life, and because design is so important to us we felt that Apple iMacs would be a better product for us. They have turned out to be an excellent investment, adding significantly to our creative processes.

These quality products remind me of the quality and varied products we produce. We are proud to service the wine industry and wine collectors throughout the United States, Canda, Europe and Asia. If you haven't done so already, check out wine racks, wine charms and wine accessories!

Labels: AmazingUniverse.com, Apple, Computers, quality products, wine accessories, Wine Charms, wine rack store, wine racks

Yes, we have come to a decision on the door type for our new new lacquer line building. It doesn't sound momentous, but it clears the way for the completion of our plant. As soon as the doors are put in we can commence our tests, employee training ,etc. We have decided on industrial insulated roll up door. Of course they have to be painted the obligatory white color. The cost is significantly more than the sliding doors which we had originally planned on. This shows that Wine Rack Store is constantly moving forward to service it's customers with better and more quality environmentally friendly products that suit their life style.

Labels: customer service, enviromentally friendly, quality products, wine rack store

We have a divisive issue at the WineRackStore. Our don't know if we should add sliding doors or warehouse type roll up doors. This is the last major hurdle before we finish the set up of our stain and lacquering facility. Part of us want sliders because of their low cost and others want the roll up doors feeling that would be more secure. Either way, they must be insulated because temperature must be maintained within a narrow range in order for the most effectively use of the environmentally safe water based stains and lacquers. I hope we can come to a resolution of this issue asap. Our customers want to make sure their wine rack is being made in the most enviromently friendly way as posssible, and of course we are striving to do so.

Labels: enviromentally safe, wine rack, wine rack store

The wine rack store is nearing completion of it's new "green" lacquer and stain line. The new line will use only water soluble stains and lacquers. This will completely do away with environmentally unfriendly processes that are now being used by our competitors. We have had to create a new line withs highly controlled temperature and humidity. Use of water based lacquers and stains presents significant challenges as compared with oil based products. This shows that the Wine Rack Store is "walking the walk" and not just "Talking the Talk". Even in the current uncertain economic times, we are proactively trying to improve our environment! Only by bringing in-house, the new staining and lacquering line, can we guarantee that the our environment will be protected. Even though the costs are significant, we will be doing the right thing, for ourselves and our children.

We will continue to offer over 20 different colors that our customers can specify for their wooden wine rack.

Labels: wine rack, wine rack store, Wooden

At last. Yes, we have completed our first wine rack assembly video. It stars Mike Kitson and is produced by Sidney Ray. The Wine Rack Store is the first to produce a video showing how easy it is to complete a Classic Wine Rack. The video can be watched on YouTube It clearly shows assembly step by step. This won't be the last video either. It is the first in a series of instructional videos that will show each of our wine racks. Check it out, tell your friends and leave a comment about how we can improve our videos. Check back frequently, for the new WineRackStore.com videos which will be added soon.

Labels: assembly video, Classic Wine Rack, wine rack, wine rack store, YouTube

A lot of the Wine Rack Store crew has just spent 10 fabulous days in the Dominican Republic. The beaches were fantastic, as were the people at the resort. We stayed in Punta Cana at the Excellence Resort. I can't say enough good things about it. We even had some time to explore some opportunities for making wood wine racks or supplying mahogany to our plants. There are many Dominican people that are underemployed, and could use a job that would give them a way to support their families. Maybe there is something we can do to help.

Labels: Mahogany, wine rack store, Wood Wine Racks

Wine Rack Store is pleased to announce that we want to put your wine tasting or charity event on our blog. We want to use our blogs to help those organizations that are doing good and are associated with the larger wine community. If you have an event coming up, do not hesitate to let us know by contacting mike@winerackstore.com or make a comment on our blog. It is that easy! Not only do we have wine racks, wine accessories and service, but we also want to help those that could use some free advertising. Don't forget that we can also capture your event through our video service. We look forward to hearing from you.

Labels: charity, events, wine accessories, wine rack store, wine racks, wine tasting table

Our Instant Cellar Wine Racks are extremely popular. Often they go to those folks that want a cellar in their home or wine racks in their store. They are quick to assemble and very durable. These quality pieces are perfect to store bottles in high density and high visibility locations. Our innovative design uses modules that allow for maximum flexibility. The newest module instant wine cellar will be allow 2 rows of bottles to be angled towards the viewer. As always our efficient production techniques will make the best quality at the lowest possible price. Check out our new product coming in the next few weeks.

Labels: instant wine cellars, wine rack, wine rack store

We buy a lot of wine at the wine rack store. Two reasons really. One reason is that we need thousands of full wine bottles for our photo shots. The second more legitimate reason is, we just plain love wine. I don't think we are connoisseurs. We love the way wine is made, and way it has been part of the human landscape since the pharoahs and before. We love the many different tastes of wine. Everybody has their favorite and that is a-ok. My personal favorite is Shiraz. We love the fact, that in moderation wine is good for you and your heart. We also love the fact that every day millions of people from around the world get together over dinner with their families and friends and experience wine. The wine rack store loves to be able to help store your wine. We make the best wine racks for the money, anywhere on the face of the earth. Check us out. One wine lover to another.

Labels: wine, wine rack, wine rack store, wine racks

Sometimes the wine rack store just seems busy, other weeks we are just jumpin'. Tumwater, Washington, we believe is the center or the wine rack universe. People want great wine racks at great prices. That seems reasonable enough. It is a formula that works for us on 4 continents. It isn't as though, we spend a lot of money on advertising or ppc. Our customers tell their friends about us, and they in turn purchase our quality products. So many products, that our production lines are expanding! Did you know that we export our products to China. That's right, we are truly a global company with our roots in the USA.

Labels: global, instant cellar, USA, wine rack, wine rack store, wine racks

As Fathers Day quickly approaches, we are seeing a lot of wine racks being purchased for the big day. Lots of daughters, sons and wives are purchasing a perfect gift for their favorite guy. Many of them tell us that Dad himself gave them instructions to buy their gifts directly from the wine rack store. That is very gratifying. Thousands of our customers, are well versed in not only collecting wine, but also they also make their wine. They are experts and they know what they want. Quite frankly, what father would not want one of our quality products?

Labels: father's day, wine rack, wine rack store

The Wine Rack Store in it's commitment to be as environmentally responsible, as is practically possible, has stopped using all it's gas powered landscaping equipment. Instead it is using totally battery powered equipment. This may seem like a small step, but did you know that a typical gas powered lawnmower used for 1 hour of use, pollutes as much as a new car does if it is driven 3400 miles. Over the course of a summer's worth of use, we will have offset the pollution of our company vehicles, as well as our employees mileage commuting to and from work. Small steps can add up! There is a minus for replacing the gas equipment. Battery equipment is simply not as strong as the equivalent sized gas equipment, so it takes longer to do the same job. This means a little more time spent and little bit more labor cost. On the plus side is there is significantly less pollution, maintenance becomes zero with electric equipment, and there is no gas to buy. The money saved more than offsets the additional labor. This doesn't have much to do with a wine rack or wine cellar, however it clearly demonstrates to our customers that we mean business when it comes to fighting pollution and greenhouse gases.

Labels: greenhouse gases, wine cellar, wine rack, wine rack store

Almost 15 years ago when we started winerackstore.com we hardly ever shipped wine racks to the southern US. That sure has changed a lot in the years since. Now people from the south are getting our products everyday. The love of wine has spread throughout the USA. Mark from Marietta is an example of how times have changed. Today he purchased his twentyth 44 bottle classic wine rack from us. He has promised us pictures and we look forward to seeing his cellar.

Labels: wine cellar, wine rack, wine rack store

We had a great time recently when we had a wine tasting at the Wine Rack Store. We set up 4 wine tasting tables and a wine coffee table so that folks had lots of places to sit and stand while sampling their wine. Our wine glass charms were used, so that nobody mixed up their glass with other folks. A great time was had by all. We are going to have a lot more in the future.

Labels: wine coffee table, wine rack, wine rack store, wine tasting table