Shelf talkers aka POS (point of sale) are advertising, nothing more, nothing less, no matter who generates it. Anytime you follow advertising you are taking someone else’s filtered point of view to make a buying decision.

Even the “authentic”, “genuine” store owner generated displays exist to steer you in a direction that someone feels is beneficial (for the store, the consumer and ultimately the supplier).

As another poster pointed out there is a distinct difference between incorrect and selective information (the movie poster correlation) and since advertising is inherently selective it will ALWAYS leave out certain points of view and information. Most POS is not incorrect, all POS is selective and therefore biased, such is advertising. Most POS is generated by someone on the supply side so.

Additionally we are now engaged in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation in regards to the almighty Score. The simple fact is that scores below a 90 (or the equivalent) are shunned by consumers so they are of course ommitted. No one says you are required to include scores, good or bad, nor does a mediocre or even poor score mean that a wine is without merit. Should a wine that scored 86 points be flushed down the toilet or immediately go in the discount bin? Perhaps the talker should read, ” 86 points??… Really, it’s not that bad… try it!”.

I use POS both to sell our wines and occasionally make my own buying decisions. Just remember that like anything, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

The retail buyers believe that they are ordering the same wine and are not aware that they are participating in a deceptive practice. The new version of the wine goes on the shelf as the original release with the same shelf tag.

When the consumer purchases more of the wine that they had liked and they taste it they wonder why it doesn’t taste the way that they remembered it tasting.

@rjh Thanks. Appreciate it.

@MSWallck You raise a good example of a mistake or typo that would make me start to wonder. We all make mistakes and we’re all reasonable enough not to fry a store for making a mistake here and there. But, like you say, when it’s a glossy well-crafted sign that they’ve obviously put a lot of time and effort into: How could it be a mistake? Especially when you see a pattern of these at certain stores, I find it hard to believe that it wasn’t intentional.

Seriously though, about lawyers. Your mileage would vary from state to state, but many states have consumer protection organizations (or they did until recently), and all this whining about shelf talkiers gets me down anyway. Who’s doing something about it? When you put up signage offering to sell an item, at least in Michigan where I know the law best, you’re making a legally binding offer to do several things:
Unless the offer is dated, or has a quantity for sale attached to it, you’re obligated to either sell the item as listed or give a good-faith raincheck for the item. How many of you have gone into a store, seen a previous better vintage offered for sale, and asked for a raincheck? If that happened a few times, a pattern would develop that would be of interest to law enforcement or perhaps some of these class-action lawyers we assume are so bad for us.

This practice is simply fraudulent, if not legally then morally, when it’s a deliberate everyday way of doing business, and I’m rather shocked that anybody has a word to say in defense of it, ESPECIALLY retailers. The old ‘Caveat Emptor,’ eh? How many times do you want to pull THAT om me?

You know, not all of us neglect reading these labels. I’ll give you a hint. Often expensive wines are listed on these shelf-talkers, and their prices are mismarked. The kind of seller that is most likely to misuse consumers is most likely to mis-mark that #325 bottle of Crystal as $3.25. So SELLER beware! When I hear of out and out theft defended by any wine retailer, I become angry enough to stop pointing out their errors to retainers that are in my favor, which are far from infrequent!

When comparing the several choices at the right price point the shelf tag then might come into play. If I am lookinga 4 wines and one has a RP rating of 83 on the tag (ps youll never see it) and another has a 91 the 83 doesnt stand a chance, unless there is brand loyalty. Hence the omission of the 83 rating but the keeping of the flowery and fruity description.

Todays market is all about case sales and points of distribution

@The Wine Mule and @Susan Guerra Thanks for your comments. I think the approaches you mention work well in shops that provide customer service and differentiate on things other than low price.

One thing that’s been mentioned several times in the comments here is the importance of developing a personal relationship with a trusted wine store. I hear this advice all the time, and I agree with it. However, what if someone doesn’t want to take the time to do this for wine? It doesn’t mean they deserve to misled by retailers. If we had to develop a personal relationship for every product we bought, we’d end up spending most of our lives shopping.

If someone just wants to buy a bottle of wine every few weeks at retailers that use ratings to help sell their wine, they should be presented with information that paints a realistic picture of wine being sold. Since that will never happen across the board, I hope this piece helps make clear some of the less obvious ways some retailers use shelf talkers to sell wine.