How People Buy Wine

A few years ago, before I was in the wine business, and had a little more disposable income, I would visit my favorite wine purveyor every other week or so, and stock up.
One visit would concentrate on "value" wines, usually around $20 per bottle. The next visit would be for "nicer" wines, usually $30-40 per bottle. Rarely would I spend over $50 per bottle. I would usually buy 2 or 3 bottles of the same wine at a time. If I really liked a wine and it was a good value, I might splurge for 6 bottles, or sometimes, even a full case of 12. I would always be sure to buy the latest and greatest Cabernet, and then fill in the rest of a case with Italian, French, Spanish and other wines. The white wines usually fell into the "value" category.
Now, being in the wine business, it's fun to watch other customers buying patterns.
You always get your mixed case buyers, but I would say 3 bottle buyers are the most common. With 3 bottles you're not overly committed to a particular wine, but you can still try it over a period of time to see how it evolves.
Most common purchase quantities per my observation at Balaban's:
3 bottles
6 bottles
2 bottles
4 bottles
1 bottle
12 bottles
Does anyone really care about this?
Probably not.
My blog.

Tom