July 23, 2009  Customer Appreciation Newsletter   Well its less than 2 days away!  Cork’s 3rd Annual Customer Appreciation Day is this Saturday, July 25th from 1 to 4 PM.  And after a long miserable stretch of weather, they are saying sunny and 80 degrees!!  For those who have never been to one of these events, it’s our chance to give something back to you...our customers for making Cork’s your liquor store of choice.  I know you have lots of choices in the area, and we appreciate that you choose to patronize Cork’s.  This may also be your last chance to say goodbye to Erin as she’s moving down south…Hmmm…does that mean we change the plaza name to Kat’s Centre?   OK…so let’s talk about the BBQ/Tasting/Raffle.  We will have burgers and dogs on the grill.  Sorry we like you folks and all but NO steaks and lobsters this year again.  We will have chips and snacks...water and soda/juice…so by all means bring the kiddies!  We’re even thinking of having a “Big Salad” for Elaine and the svelte Tommy Bolini.  We’re still looking for volunteers for the grill as Don and Bill from last year are both away on vacation.    We have a great lineup of fun summer wines, beers and liquors for you to sample as well.  Let’s start with beer…We have a new rep Keith from Magic Hat here to pouring the magical elixirs from their summer 12-pk…Our pal Yanni will be here to sample you on Opa-Opa including their Watermelon growlers. OOHHPA!!.... Mike’s will be here to refresh your palates with 4 brand new flavors!!  Our friends from Boston Beer Co. will be here with a mixture of Sam Adams and Twisted Teas.  Dan from Quality will have new beers from Widmer and Redhook for you to try.   Our new L. Knife rep. Miguel will have a bunch of his “Summer Beers” that he has in his portfolio as well.   On the wine/liquor side we have Tommy Bolini and Zimmy the Greek!!  Tommy will have the brand new Montinore Borealis Northern Whites, and a sweet/chillable red called Bully Hill Banty Red.  He also has new UV RTD Cocktails in Lemonade, Blue Raspberry, and Cherry flavors.  Zimmy is actually Jamie from MS Walker fresh back from Greece with lots of stories to tell.  You might think he’d have Greek wines for you, but alas he has 2 new organic Chilean wines from Cono-Sur (Pinot Noir & Sauv. Blanc) and a bunch of delicious Spanish and Italian wines.  Si Soave (you have to Si this crazy bottle), Santi Pinot Grigio, Con Class Rueda, Evodia Grenache, and Red Guitar Tempranillo.  Mr. “Bud”erworth will be back with Rum Jumbies!! they come in Coconut, Mango, Pineapple, and Vanilla. He also has 2 wines…Dogajolo Tuscan Red and the brand new White.  Our farming friends from Harvard, MA will also be here with their yummy Apfel Eis apple ice wine.   We can’t forget about our fabulous raffle!!  We have a ton of stuff from T-shirts and pint glasses to bikes and a gaming chair…we have huge patio umbrellas...coolers…a Bud Light/Redsox canopy…a Sam Adams deck chair…and tons of other good stuff.  We’re trying to tweak the raffle so it’s less confusing and chaotic (though that is what makes it fun!)…each customer will fill out an entry form and that will also be your # for the whole day.  The raffle will be at 2:30 and you MUST be present to win.  The problem we had in the past was that people would have their # called in the front of the store, and all the “stuff” was in the back of the store.  Some people would be # 4 and not want to wade through the masses for their prize and would wait until the end…only to find all the good stuff gone and only wicker reindeer left!!  I think we’re going to try to do the entire thing in the back to help solve that problem.  After all this supposed to be a fun drama less day!   I think I covered everything…and conveniently have yet to mention the slumping Sox…yikes...those damn Yankees are ruining our Summahhh!!  No worries we have plenty of time left, and if memory serves me 8 more with them and they’ve yet to beat us!  Geeze I don’t think I’ve used this many exclamation points since I was 12 !!!!  I promise I’ll stop.   From Megan, Robert, Don, Erin, Kat, Andrew, Ben, Robin, Marianne, Shannon, Josh, Courtney, Ursula, Valerie, Brian, Cody, and even Ted the wine dog (let us not forget the long line of “ X” Cork’s employees as well…yikes there sure has been some doozies)… we all want to THANK YOU !! for being loyal Cork’s customers.  See you all Saturday!!...OK just a few more!!!