Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Wildbilly wrote:
songbird wrote:

there's more than one business model.
i keep thinking you have no actual experience
in small businesses

Owned, and operated a small 3,000 case winery for 10 years. Our broker
was screwing us, and our landlord was about to do the same, so we went
to Europe for a year instead.

landlord for a winery, oh my...

Twenty acre minimum to have a winery on agricultural land. One acre of
vineyard = $100,000. As it was, I spent the first 3 mo. in Europe
grinding my teeth, and then I relaxed.

$2M, ouch, around here 20 acres might run
about the price of the one out there, but
it's not prime grape turf here (not enough
hills, foggy and hot and humid, etc.) anyways.
east and west of us there are vinyards coming
along. i'm not sure what they run per acre.

ok, so you have actually been a corporate
overlord. that means your comments are
geared towards the big corporations and not
the smaller ones?

Large wineries, in a year with a large harvest, can tell a grower that
they don't want his 200 tons of grapes. That's a lot of grapes to eat.
Inevitably that leads to dickering over price, even though the grower
had a contract. There are provisions for grape quality, and who do you
think determins that?

sounds like a horrible business if you get
treated those ways.


Sometimes a grower can find other buyers, and
negotiate sales. Sometimes the grower will take a chance, and spend his
own money to turn the grapes into wine (custom crush). And, sometimes,
the grapes just sit there and rot, which ****es everybody off, because
the mold spores fly every where.

which would make the next year even harder if
everyone is P.O.ed...


but what do you think of a large company
that does make green efforts (or any company
for that matter)? already they are making
headway even more than the government is in
some areas.

i'm still asking this.

I think they are great people, and I know some do exist, but not enough
to make an impact on our economy.

one company alone buys enough megawatts to cover the
entire output of several wind projects which means that
it is no longer coal, natural gas generated electricity
or one less coal or natural gas power plant built. it's
an impact, maybe not large yet, but tiz there and i'm
glad for it.


I tried to find a list of them, but
the lists would include Whole Foods Markets, GE, and Goldman Sachs.
Eeeew!

you can edit out the ones you don't like. the Billy
approved list at least is better than nothing at all.


songbird