Braintree Business of the Week: Bin Ends

Wine is a serious business for many people. The right wine needs to go with the right food at the right temperature. Sometimes, it is the wine that dictates the conversation, the perfect companion to a formal dinner or a day spent at the beach.

in Braintree is a store that encourages the dialogue of wine. This is not your average wine-shop; it is a 4,000-foot square space located a reasonable distance from the huge retail stores that dominate the Braintree landscape. When you walk into the store, the first thing that catches your eye are the bottles in crates that fill the store without limiting access for the browsing wine (or beer) lover.

The second thing that grabs your attention is John Hafferty, the owner of the store. A big man with a big smile, he has taken the business of wine and given it his own twist.

This week, Patch spent some time with Hafferty to talk about his business and what makes it a unique part of the licensed beverage community in Braintree. 

Where are you from?

I grew up in Massachusetts. I’m actually from Brockton, a blue-collar community about 30 miles south of Boston. I spent 10 years living in the city in the 90s before moving to Braintree and buying a home. We opened Bin Ends four years ago.

Why did you decide come to Braintree?

We really liked the town. It’s a terrific community and it is really well-balanced. You have the access to Boston with the Redline and Commuter Rail, it’s a 15-minute drive into the city but you are also far enough away that you don’t have to deal with meter-maids and all the joys of urban living.

It’s a culturally diverse community; our kids get to go to school with folks from all parts of the world. There is a great school system, the roads are paved and the police show up a few minutes after you call them (laughs). Braintree is a town with a city form of government; there is an ample amount of open space with the right balance of residential and commercial property. It makes for a good overall quality of life.

How did you get into the wine trade?

I spent my first five years after leaving college in 1985 working as a commercial real estate broker. When the collapse happened from 1988-90, I had an epiphany… take a hobby, turn it into a career and you’ll never have to “work” a day again! In 1990, I started working at the wholesale and import end of the business. Wine had just been a hobby that I had developed an interest in during my years in real estate in the city. I enjoyed it, it was something I had a passion for and it really connected for me.

Had you always planned to move into the retail side of the grape?

I worked at various different levels in the wine trade. I started out as a sales rep and then was a regional rep for an importer. I then spent eight years as a fine wine portfolio manager at MS Walker. Before opening Bin Ends, I had never worked in retail in my life… I had spent a lot of time in them, just never worked!

Since I had worked at the various levels of the business, opening the store and developing a retail business was the natural and exciting next, new step. As a rep, I had watched the interaction between consumers and retailers and how they approached the subject of wine. All that time observing had a lot of influence in terms of how we developed our concept and niche in terms of what we do at Bin Ends.

In terms of a retail location, Bin Ends is not your average wine store…

We are a bit unusual in the way that 90 percent of wine shops or liquor stores are located downtown or on Main Street. Most of their business comes from their immediate local community within a five-minute drive. We are on Wood Road, a dead end street just off the highway and so our business is a destination location model.

It’s interesting, we opened in May 2008 and the stock market was booming… within three months the economy went into a difficult stretch. As it turns out, our particular business model of good quality wine being presented or offered to consumers at an affordable price was the right idea at the right time. We have built our business largely by word of mouth, the bottles that walk out with our customers on a daily basis end up being our advertising. The customer is our brand ambassador and the bottle is the hook.

We’re always having people walk in and say “I was at a party last night and somebody brought this bottle of wine”… It’s written on a piece of paper or there is a picture of the label on their phone. They have never seen it before but they have been told that they can get it here. That’s how we’ve built up the business.

Where are your customers from?

If you look at our customer base you will see that they come from Braintree, Quincy and Weymouth etc., but we have a very solid draw. We bring in customers from Cambridge, Somerville, South Boston and all along the South Shore coast down to Duxbury. We are drawing from around a 20-mile radius and most of that is driven from our core base of customers that we have developed in the last four years.

The layout of the store doesn’t seem complicated. Was that intentional?

What we have tried to do is create an environment that is approachable to consumers at all levels of experience and knowledge. Having worked in the trade for some time, you get people who want an uncomplicated Chardonnay and others who are looking for specific Burgundies from specific producers. The trick for us is to create an environment that is approachable to the broadest range of consumers. The way we did that was by keeping it as simple as possible and to allow consumers to browse so that they could discover new things.

The store is loosely organized by region with the New World (including domestic) wines bookending the front and back. The Old World (France, Spain, Italy, Germany) standards are along the inside wall but we had a conscious decision to not fill the 4,000 square feet of the store with wine racks… with a store this size, that would be an overwhelming amount of selections! We intentionally avoided putting the wine in tight constraints so our total selection is around 450-480 wines. They are loosely organized; we encourage our guests to discover new things that they might overlook if they just went straight to the Napa Valley Cabernet selection!

Offering regular wine tastings must help with this discovery…

We taste seven days a week. Our tasting counter is set up on a rotating basis so that we can cover pretty much everything in the store. We do taste everything that we bring in and we taste them against other items so that we make sure that we are offering the best value selection within a particular category. On average, there are half a dozen wines available to taste most days.

On the last Sunday of every month, we host our Fine Wine Flea Market from 1-5 p.m. It’s a free walk around wine tasting. We feature between 50 and 60 selections and it gives our guests the chance to try before they buy with everything typically discounted by 20-50 percent of the RRP. Some people have it on their calendar so we see them virtually every month!

Do you find that holding an event like a flea market helps to demystify the perception of wine?

It’s funny, every once in a while you still get the occasional person who believes that wine is somewhat highbrow. I can tell you, just by looking around the store that our approach and attitude to wine is anything but that! From the colors on the walls (green and purple) to the friendly and approachable staff… we are here to help with whatever questions or interests that they might have without being overbearing and pushy. Fine wines, artisanal spirits and craft beer are all about enhancing the quality of life for people and if it becomes a chore or heavy-handed and highbrow… then what’s the point?

What is the Unique Selling Point for Bin Ends?

Great wines, serious savings. Even the name of the company shows that we run away from the highbrow concept… it’s Bin Ends! The original concept was to fill a niche like a Marshalls of the wine retail world but over the four years since we opened, we have become a lot more. “Great Wines, Serious Savings” is our tagline and our statement of what you will find when you shop here. Great wines that will over-perform and offering them at a price that is best in the market!