Major wine and spirits retailer opening Tacoma store
Total Wine & More, a national wine, beer and spirits retailer focused on customer experience and value, will open its 13th Washington state store in Tacoma later this month, hiring up to 75 people for a location at Tacoma Mall.
With a footprint of 23,400 square feet, the alcoholic beverage superstore will carry more than 14,000 items, said vice president of public affairs Edward Cooper, including 8,000 wines, 3,000 spirits and almost as many beers.
The store also will feature a “high-tech classroom” seating about 50 people. There, trained store staff will lead regular educational seminars — about 15 for each category annually — and producers will lead expert tastings. Community groups will be able to reserve the room for events, said Cooper.
Led by brothers David and Robert Trone, Total Wine & More began in 1991 as a single, 900-square-foot store in Delaware. Both entered the alcohol industry in Pennsylvania, starting with beer, and both later earned MBAs from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Now based in Bethesda, Maryland, the company celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In the past decade, it has grown from about 80 stores to 217 in 27 states, all independently owned and operated. None have ever closed, according to Cooper.
Total Wine & More opened its first Washington location in Bellevue after the state privatized liquor sales in 2012. At 30,000 square feet, that store was triple the size of any of the state liquor stores, which closed or were sold in the privatization process.
Currently, the nearest stores to Tacoma are in Federal Way and South Hill Village in Puyallup. Tacoma-area shoppers travel to these stores to stock up, said Cooper, and they frequently wished for a more convenient location.
“Tacoma seemed to be something that’s been on our radar for some time, and the opportunity presented itself to be able to come to Tacoma,” he said.
Landing at the Tacoma Mall is “the best of all possible worlds in terms of location,” he continued, especially being near I-5.
Like its other stores, the one in Tacoma will have built-in tasting stations — one dedicated to wine and one to beer and spirits. Most of the building will be dedicated to retail floor space, said Cooper, requiring 50 to 75 employees, three-quarters of whom will be full-time with benefits. Positions are available.
In addition to undergoing more than 100 hours of education and training, staff often includes sommeliers, certified Cicerones (the gold standard of professional beer certifications), bartenders and spirit experts.
“That’s not uncommon for us,” said Cooper, “but we want to be able to train everybody.”
When it opens, hopefully by the end of September, Total Wine & More will join Ulta Beauty and Nordstrom Rack in the new Tacoma Mall development in the former Sears lot, which closed in 2018 and was demolished the following year.
TOTAL WINE & MORE - TACOMA
▪ 4502 S. Steele St., Tacoma, totalwine.com
▪ Details: wine, beer and spirits superstore opening Fall 2021 at the Tacoma Mall; positions available
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.