Mezze Bottiglie? No, Grazie - Half Bottles? No thanks

A feature on half bottles and other techniques to help increase wine sales in restaurants by Slawka G. Scarso. First published in Bibenda May-June 2005.

INCIPIT
People have always been attracted by new forms of sale. No wonder it is commonly said, when faced with a genial idea, that “this is the best invention since sliced bread”- which, by the way, was first on the market at the end of the Twenties, thanks to the invention of 26 year old Otto F. Rohdwedder who didn’t pay any attention to those who told him that the bread would have gone stale straight away, and thus his project would be destined to failure.
Since then, inventions of this kind have covered supermarket shelves with precooked and mono-dose food. From snacks to single dose cornflakes and laundry detergents in tablets which cost a fortune in comparison to the traditional powder but who cares when they’re so practical?
And at a time when globalization thrives in the wine market, could this sector remain a happy oasis where these things do not happen? Not at all.
So here comes every sort of newer (and slightly older) strategy to sell the same product as yesterday, because you cannot avoid meeting the needs of the consumer, especially when he is so price-sensitive.
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