Weighty issue.

Kind of on the heels of the "5 Easy Ways" thread....

I was listening as usual to the BBC World Service on my way to work this morning, and their show "Business Daily" featured a segment on ways retailers both online and in brick-and-mortars try to boost sales by using psychological warfare (in so many words).

They started that segment by interviewing an experimental psychologist who did a study on the correlation between how heavy a wine bottle is and how well it sells compared to lighter bottles. And guess what? It turns out there IS a correlation - a big, positive, really-looks-like-it's-causative correlation! And the manufacturers are not ignorant of this fact either. They highlight spirits producers who are using weighted corks to make their product heavier than their competition!

Listen for yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039wt3z

That's it. If I ever realize my dream of opening a winery, I'm releasing all my vintages in osmium lined bottles. Yeah, no one will be able to lift them and they'll smell awful. But they'll sell like mad! Ah, the gullible masses. God bless 'em, every one....

[David M. Bueker]

It is sad that base instincts lead to these ultra heavy bottles. They are wasteful in materials, wasteful in extra shipping weight, wasteful in the waste stream!

They are also a PITA to store!

I rather enjoy a classy heavy bottle. Had one recently that weighed ,more than a kilo, and weighed more empty than the full bottle of wine I had the next evening.

But play havoc with weight allowances on aeroplanes and one was too big to fit into packing and had to be left behind with a friend to keep for me, but he'd forgotten all about it when I returned the following year!

If they fit on my floor corker they’re OK if not they’re not OK!

Salute

Some winemakers with environmental scruples go specifically for light weight bottles as the energy needed for transport is reduced (not to mention the wasted material). I suspect the group of people impressed by heavy bottles and the environmental types don't overlap much.

BTW, there was a manufacturing engineer who dissected a pair of Beats headphones (ca. $200, Made in China, IIRC) and tried to put a price on the real cost of manufacture, which was a small fraction of the retail cost. But the most expensive part was a cast metal piece whose sole function was to give the product some heft, so that consumers would think it was worth the cost.

[Jenise]

Some winemakers with environmental scruples go specifically for light weight bottles as the energy needed for transport is reduced (not to mention the wasted material). I suspect the group of people impressed by heavy bottles and the environmental types don't overlap much.

BTW, there was a manufacturing engineer who dissected a pair of Beats headphones (ca. $200, Made in China, IIRC) and tried to put a price on the real cost of manufacture, which was a small fraction of the retail cost. But the most expensive part was a cast metal piece whose sole function was to give the product some heft, so that consumers would think it was worth the cost.

Ha, count me in as an overlapper. I understand and condone the objection, but the artistic side of me can't help but like the look and feel of some of those heavy bottles. Do I know that it doesn't mean that the wine inside is better? Yes. But they're more handsome nonetheless.

Like the Beats story, Joe.