When Total Wine & More cuts the ribbon on a new store in Lansing, Michigan, on Oct. 1, it will be the company’s 300th store, and the opening comes as the Maryland-based firm celebrates its 35th anniversary. Started by brothers Robert and David Trone in 1991 with one store in Delaware, Total is now the largest privately owned beer, wine and spirits retailer in the United States. When it comes to business, particularly the wine business, big often attracts criticism. Ask wine lovers how they feel about Total, and you’re bound to get an opinion. I usually stop by Total once or twice a year; I approach wine stores like I approach wine—I am too busy exploring all the diversity wine has to offer to buy the same thing in the same place every time. But Total’s biggest impact in wine is how it has shaped—and continues to try to shape—the wine landscape. In most...
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