Geerlings & Wade - Cutting Through the Vines (2,787 words)

In marked contrast to the complex wine-delivery situation, Geerlings & Wade's wine-accessory inventory is stocked in and delivered from Canton, MA, rather than divided among the 16 distribution centers.

Pearce sums up, "Direct marketing is a business of watching pennies in order to make money, so we work hard at reducing our delivery costs. In Texas, for instance, we use multiple couriers to minimize our costs; we do that as well in Massachusetts." For deliveries to western Massachusetts, the company has found that third-party couriers are more economical than the proprietary delivery fleet.