Total Wine & More

We walk in store. Know one greet us or asked us if we needed help finding anything. Took me while to find drink I was looking for. I end up going to customers service asking for help. They were to busy talking to go show me what I was looking for.
At check out did not ask me about reward program. I had to ask. (I only ask because she ask person in front of us). Won’t rush back any time soon.

I was visiting from CA, and I must say their selection of beer & scotch was vastly better than the ones in Southern California.
Really? Yes.
How can that be? No idea, but that’s just sad (for me)
Lucky for you all who live in the Spokane area.
The employee’s I spoke to didn’t know much, but they were nice.

The decline of knowledgeable helpful staff will be the ruin of this and the sister valley store. When this establishment opened nearly three years ago, it was on point. The product selection was superior, the organization made logical sense, and the staff was knowledgeable and helpful. Every time I visit this store now it is nearly empty and the staff is either aloof or borderline rude. Good and rare products not available elsewhere are disappearing. The products are not arranged in any order that makes sense for the style, brand or easy access. There was some management changes a few years ago and I don’t believe this establishment was ever able to fully recover. Selling wine, quality beer and liquor is not an easy feat, especially if it is of the esoteric sort (which many of the disappearing products have been). The typical American palate is not accustomed to these items and when the price tag is high if your staff is ignorant of what it is (which they certainly are!) your not going to move enough off the shelf to guarantee its sale with the high liquor taxes included! The last few times I have been in this store the staff has basically ran the other direction any time they saw a customer, they chat amongst themselves and appear generally disinterested regarding their job in general. This is all unfortunate because I hate wasting my time looking for a product I know the website says the store has and having to scour and scan through the isles to find it because it was not categorized effectively (and nobody is around to assist). I really wish I could say I would never return but unfortunately this is the only store that carries many products and at a cheaper price. I will definitely shop elsewhere for any product that this store does not carry exclusively.

The customer service there is terrible. I’m not a big hard alcohol consumer and couldn’t find some things I was looking for despite looking in the obvious places. After I spent over 15 minutes trying to find it, I gave up. And there were no clerks around to ask except the cashiers. It’s the Christmas season and I would think there would be more help throughout the store, but NO! By the time I got to the checkout I was ready to pay and leave. I didn’t want to inconvenience the people behind me in line to ask someone to go get it for me, and that’s assuming there’s only one size and not several at different prices to choose from. To make things worse the clerk Jessica was a snot. Customer service people should be trained in giving good customer service, not acting like their own butt hurts.

It is like heaven for a beer/​wine drinker. Excellent selection and knowledgeable staff.

Found this place on the way home to Missoula, MT. Damn there is a lot to choose from. Great selection and good friendly service. Would go back for sure. Stocked up and had to get out of there before I spent too much.

This has got to be a prime example of a speciality store. I am not a wine connoisseur at all but it appears that this store has something for every taste in wine and beer. The interior of the store reminds me a little of a cavernous wine cellar, with all the bottles of wines on the shelves and the high, open ceiling. Although no one greeted me upon entering the store, a polite gentleman working at the checkstand did walk me to the precise location of the beers I was inquiring about. I found a sorghum ale that my husband hadn’t tried yet. The prices for the gluten free products were somewhat higher than chain grocery stores, but you choose your own, custom six-​pack, and there is a broader selection to chose from. I did notice the bottles were not chilled and hope my sample purchase will be worth the stop in.

Love love love love love Total Wine!!! I could get lost in this place for at least 15 minutes at a time. Even if I buy nothing here, I still love walking through the business because I never know if something new will jump out and yell «BUY ME NOW»!!!

This is a Total Wine — pretty much the same as you’ll find in every location around the country. It’s good for what it is, but it’s not an ideal spot.
Now, I can only speak to the beer side of this store, as that’s what I love. And the only part of the store with which I’m familiar. And the beer selection is decent; it’s probably the best selection you’ll find in Spokane, with just about the best prices in the area.
It’s just that while the beer selection is quite good, it’s very clear that they don’t care about beer at this Total Wine.
One issue is that a lot of their beer isn’t fresh. Some of it ages well, so it’s got a really long shelf life, but your hoppier beers (like your IPAs), don’t do well with ageing. And when you have IPAs sitting on the shelves for months on end, they taste old and spoiled when you buy them. It’s unfair to the beer, the customer, and the brewery.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that they don’t always seem to have anyone working who actually knows anything about beer. I was in line with someone you asked about how long a growler would last. It took three people and some fancy electronics, and they still didn’t come up with a great answer.
I’d advise going elsewhere, but there aren’t really any better options in Spokane, unfortunately.

Huge selection and great prices. It’s a fantastic store to go to if you’re looking to load up on good wine but don’t want to spend an absurd amount of money. Also the staff is more knowledgeable than you’d think – I’ve pulled off some great food & wine pairings based on their suggestions. (They can be a tad pushy though, so be prepared to stand your ground if you aren’t looking to load up on ten bottles of wine.)
So why only three stars? Well I’ve bought about fifteen bottles of wine from there and three of them have been spoiled. At this point I pretty much assume that if I buy three or four bottles of wine one of them will be no good. That’s way too high of a rate and makes me think that they need to evaluate how they are storing these wines.

Total Wine & More is the largest independent retailer of fine wine in the country. Yep, it’s a chain and each location typically stocks more than 8,000 (not a typo) wines. It’s not as romantic as buying directly from the winemaker or is it as intimate as the small neighborhood wine shop but it has a staggering selection, which equates to discount pricing. Friend or foe to our wine scene?

Amazing wine selection. It helps if you are already somewhat expert. There are many recommended wines on the shelves, and not all the «picks» are good. Just called to try to buy a case of a Tuscan wine and they could not tell me if they had it by computer search. When I suggested she look on the shelf, she dropped the call before I could describe the label and then told me she «didn’t see any» when she returned. I understand poor inventory information in a really small business, but this place is huge. Surprising to me that their computers don’t have more to offer. Seems like there could even be a site to look up on the web, but I didn’t find that connection. Still, the place has good pricing and an unbeatable selection of wines.

This place is awesome!
I don’t make it out to that side of town very often, which is probably good because I’m sure I would visit more frequently if I did.
They have a huge wine selection, which is most important to me. But, they also have a great selection on liquor as well. Which pleases my vodka loving husband. I have also been known to pick up a bottle or two of ouzo there. So they pretty much have the works.
Sometimes I go in there looking for something specific, or even check on their website. If they don’t have it, I ask my «go to» wine manager there Matt. He is very knowledgeable, and friendly.
They also give a 10% discount if you buy six or more bottles (certain rules apply).

My wife and I had heard of the new liquor/​wine/​beer mega store on the north side of the city. We were impressed with the selection the store offered. We went in with one item in mind. As we wandered the store we became less enchanted and more frustrated. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Customer service was non-​existent. We a found a couple of items we would have purchased in our attempt to locate our primary purchase. I finally went to the cashier and asked where I would find the mead. I got a blank stare, she called another employee and the answer I received was that it was next to the Port and pointed in a general direction. We walked that direction and could not locate it. We were there over half an hour and no customer service ever offered to help us.
That was it… we put our items down and left in frustration.
We walked next door to the Best Buy, and no lie, within the first two minutes of entering the store three different employees asked if we needed any help…

I’m a huge beer and whiskey geek, and all I can say is that this is heaven. They had every single rare whiskey that I looked for, and about 90% of the rare beers. In fact, their whiskey section by itself is bigger than most liquor stores.

Whoa, nelly!
This behemoth in the same strip mall as a Target won my heart over.
What a selection of liquor! I’m not much of a beer drinker or wine drinker (I def have my faves in those categories) but I was really impressed with all the liquor on hand. For example, just looking at coffee liqueurs, there were at least 10 options.
The staff is knowledgeable-​ish (for a chain?) and friendly. Checkout process was easy and I spent a more than a few minutes in the humidor, checking things out.
Prices seemed fair enough. Is it illegal to offer coupons on such items? I would love to see a 10% coupon or some kind of package deal on all the tiny airplane-​sized bottles…6 for $ 10 or some such. The tiny Crown Royal and St. Germain bottles were the sweetest!
I’m a fan!

it’s about time that Spokane got a store like this. I have been to other stores like this in other cities and was always jealous and trying to figure out a way to bring home bottles. Awesome selection of wines and beer. Great hard alcohol selection. Can’t wait to try one of their classes.

My husband and I are big wine geeks, so of course we had to check this place out. I had no problem with the selection, although the store layout is confusing and only about a third wine. My problem was with customer service.
We checked out the tiny wine tasting and the man asked for id. I handed him my military id and he said he couldn’t accept it. So I gave him my out of state license. The man called a manager over while he held my id’s hostage. I was put off by that and told my husband I thought it had been odd. My husband figured the man was just confused. I’ve never had two forms of government issued id looked over by a manager before. If I had known that would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered.
We bought some wine and went to check out. The cashier asks for id, and my husband gives her his military id. She pages the manager, only saying «military id», like this happens all the time and they have a policy. The same manager scrutinizes our id’s again, even though he just saw us, says nothing, and leaves. I ask the cashier what the problem is. She says they’re not trained to look at military or out of state id’s. What type of training does this require? Locate my birth date and I’m good.
I’ve been all over the country, my husband has been active duty for a decade and never once have we been hassled for being a military family. I’ll go somewhere that wants my business.