Great site! I didn’t see any contact info on here so am passing mine along in hopes that you’ll take a few minutes to email.  I’d love to tell you about what we’re doing at My Wine School.  Keep up the good work!

Cheers
Emily 
http://www.mywineschool.com
emily@mywineschool.com

Thank you for stopping by

Go Ashley! Just started listening right now. Let’s see how long you can last with out Tweeting through this.

P.S. Nice beard man!

Ilya

I believe “predatory” in the way that Paul described it was more akin to the “predatory lending” that banks and mortgage brokers were doing on those folks who were unable to get the time of day from anyone else.

I would consider what VinTank is doing with “Deals from the Vines” as customer acquisition for VinTank, since they are giving away a service to wineries (i.e. possible prospective clients) in exchange for marketplace goodwill and reputation that will lead to paying clients coming to VinTank for their consulting services. The key however is that at no time do they advertise explicitly their services.

And as generous as our sponsors are, for what WBR takes in from sponsorships, I hardly qualify as a capitalist. Yes, not everything is about profit, but at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with making a comfortable living. I believe the real art lies in striking the balance between avarice and altruism.

I would also question the use of the term Predatory In business and economics, predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. If competitors or potential competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices without losing money, they go out of business or choose not to enter the business. The predatory merchant then has fewer competitors or is even a de facto monopoly, and hypothetically could then raise prices above what the market would otherwise bear.

But in capitalism if the fees are too high, other entities will enter the marketplace and offer better rates. Or better qualified consumers. There are many players in the discount wine business. As Paul noted wineries have at least three channels that charge lower rates and therefore are not “predatory”. No need to offer the buyer-seller connection for free unless it’s a technique to build awareness of your own brand and the availability of other solutions