Total Wine & More: The total package

Dylan Lynch

Total Wine & More took over This is Retail’s Instagram account for a week to give an inside look at the nation’s largest independent retailer of wine, beer and spirits.

A photo posted by This Is Retail (@this_is_retail) on Oct 24, 2016 at 9:12am PDT

A typical Total Wine & More store carries over 8,000 wines from every wine-producing region in the world, 2,500 beers — from big-name brands to hard-to-find microbrews and imports — and more than 3,000 spirits.

A video posted by This Is Retail (@this_is_retail) on Oct 24, 2016 at 2:29pm PDT

On a daily basis, passionate store experts are trying products and learning about the industry. They aim to provide customers with firsthand knowledge about the very products they love and buy themselves.

A photo posted by This Is Retail (@this_is_retail) on Oct 27, 2016 at 5:04pm PDT

The company’s buying teams go through intensive training to become experts on their subjects. Whether it’s attending beer school or wine tastings in Napa Valley, they travel across the country and around the world to places like Germany, Spain and France to meet with suppliers and learn the stories behind the products they carry.

Total Wine & More employees like Senior Manager of Spirits Buying Amanda Batchelet are grateful for the opportunities offered by the company. “When I was graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in finance and marketing, I never thought that I’d be sitting in a conference room tasting vodka and Irish cream on a daily or weekly basis,” says Batchelet, who has touched just about every category of buying from glassware and accessories to managing the beer assortment. Watch this video to learn more about Amanda’s “unexpected” job.

See more photos from the #TotalWineTakeover and explore retail’s impact on careers, community and innovation: Follow @nrf on Instagram.

Want more photos?

Find more photos and stories from retailers big and small: Follow @nrf on Instagram.