Total Wine & Spirits

Great selecton of imported beers and craft beers. I dont drink wine but they do have large selection. A bit pricey but it is a specialty store. They also have a nice selection of cigars

Update Sunday, June 30, ’13: Now I’ve confirmed that Total Wine & etc. definitely offers lower «zone» prices in LA than in the Palm Springs area. Crown Royal, 1.5 Liter is $ 35.99 in the Coachella Valley and $ 29.99 in the Greater LA area. LA Times ad showed $ 29.99. Sunday newspaper in Desert Sun still shows Crown Royal big bottle at $ 35.99. Guess their marketing geniuses don’t consider the possibility that many people in PS area also get the LA Times, where Total Wine advertises. Thus, their prices are slightly better than drug stores and grocery stores, but not Costco. Which, today still have their $ 24.99 price on the same sized Crown Royal (including the $ 5 coupon at the register.) Total Wine: meh.

Horrible customer service issues on the assistant manager end and guy at cash register. They were extremely rude, I’ve never been treated so bad.
I’m only leaving a star because the gentleman that was helping me was extremely helpful in finding the wine I wanted.

Total Wine used to have quite a wide variety of well-​known wines at very good prices. But when we went to their Palm Desert shop yesterday 95% of the wines were «Winery Direct,» meaning that you will know nothing about the wine. All the by-​the-​case wines had big «Winery Direct» signs plastered on them. Same thing with their spirits. Few well-​known brands, mostly brands you’ve never heard of that are, I guess the term is «Sprits Direct.» I couldn’t find any Remy or Courvoisier except in a locked case at prices of $ 100 and up.
I also had a quite bad experience with a clerk there. I had purchased a bottle of rather expensive Zin, don’t recall the brand, but it was in the $ 27 price range. It turned out that the wine was heat-​struck, meaning that it had a sherry-​like taste, and had been stored at a high temperature, perhaps in a truck that sat in the sun. Anyway, I brought the ¾-​full bottle to the Customer Service and told the young lady that I needed to return it because it was heat-​struck. Her remark was, «What did you do, leave it in the trunk of your car too long?» I guess I did get a bit angry at such a rude remark. Most wine stores would have apologized for the inconvenience. Still, she’s only one clerk, but it did leave me with a bad impression of the store.

I’m only leaving 2 stars because of the huge selection that’s available.
There are many issues with customer service here and I found out who’s responsible for them: yes folks, it’s the store management! Ding ding ding.
During my visits to Total Wine, I’ve never been greeted, never asked if I was finding everything ok, if I needed any help, etc. and after spending time looking for things on my own or searching for it on the Total Wine website (it will tell you exactly where to find something), I’ve then trekked up to the cashier only to be met with a «I hate my job and you too, so I’ll do enough just to not get fired» attitude.
This last time, the wife and I decided to order online and just pick-​up at the customer service desk, so we could avoid all that. The online order system is suppose to take an hour (why should it even take that long), so after waiting for 2 hours and no confirmation e-​mail, we make our way to the store and the customer service desk/​area.
After one of the two oblivious employees see us and probably a flip of a coin to decide who has to help us, we tell the employee that we’re here to pick up an online order and provide the necessary information. After a minute or two of his searching, he looks back at his co-​worker and asks if she gathered our order, to which she sneers «I didnt do it» and rolls her eyes, to which my wife had a response for.
He summons the manager and after some whispering, they blame it on the computer.
The manager sends the employee that had been helping us, to assist someone at the register, while the other employee that had been dismissive, wandered off from the pack and ran for her freedom through the aisles where she undoubtedly pretended to be busy and avoid other customers.
This left us with the store manager to retrieve our order and we watched while he got lost through his own store and couldn’t find some easy to find items, by himself.
Joking aside, we stood by the customer service desk for 5 minutes while traipsed up and down the same area over and over.
Finally, I went to go and pick out the items myself and that’s when the dismissive employee came back to save the day and help the manager.
We were there for much longer than we had to be and the only person that apologized for the goof was the guy that helped us initially and then got sent to man the register.
Bad experience!

I was so excited to see the HUGE selection of this place the first time I went. Unfortunately they didn’t have the wine I drink (completely surprised because they seem to have everything) but that’s not why they got one star. The first time I went in (after my initial excitement) I then found the wine tasting bar and got even more excited. Since I don’t know wines that well I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn something. I walked up and asked if they had a sweet wine I could try and BOTH of the guys standing there looked at me as if I didn’t belong. I immediately felt completely uncomfortable as they finally responded «no» and turned around. I found the sweet wine section and was there for probably minutes trying to see what to try and no one came around to help. The second time I came in I was standing there for 30 minutes wanting to try something different and saw several employees walking around or helping others but never me. Customer service sucks and I’m sad to say that’s one place I’ll never go again.

You walk into a fabulous store, full of any kind of wine or spirit you could possibly desire. You see employees wearing headsets and seemingly communicating with management or each other, providing a sense of security and customer service. But that is not the case in Palm Desert. I even experienced a situation which required a manager attention, yet he didn’t want to deal with it, and instead of acknowledging my complaint, ordered me OUT OF THE STORE! I actually went back awhile later to purchase a variety of items and upon viewing my receipt on the way out, noticed that I had not been charged for an $ 8 purchase. But when I went back in to rectify the mistake, I was chastised and ridiculed!
The products are good here, and some of the staff are nice, but most of them don’t know how to provide customer service or even be able to process transactions.
BTW don’t bother contacting corporate — they won’t help you either!

Congratulations Total Wine and More! Your service was so terrible and offensive that you’ve made it in to my top 5 worst customer service experiences EVER! I spent an over an hour in your store picking out wines for my family and I only to find out that you would so rudely refuse my sale at check out. Your «manager» (I asked for the manager, but the sales associate refused) accused me of selling alcohol to a minor because I had my 12 year old sister with me. When I offered to have her wait in the car or leave during the sale, the manager continued to accuse me of illegally providing a minor with alcohol and continued to refuse the sale. When I explained that I was her guardian and that I have seen children in their store on more than one occasion, she told me that I was not her grandparent or parent and that buying alcohol in her presence was illegal. I am 23 and my sister is 10 years younger than me, but she cannot rightfully assume that I am not her legal guardian. Her only «helpful» suggestion was that I come back tomorrow alone to buy all the alcohol that I had spent an hour collecting. After the false accusations, rude comments, and ridiculous remarks, we left the store with no intentions of ever returning. Now I am left wishing (for the very first time), that Unilocal allowed negative star ratings. Although they do have the right to refuse service to anyone, I am 23 and it is perfectly legal for me to purchase alcohol. I have never been refused when purchasing alcohol at any other store, including BevMo and other privately owned liquor stores, even when my younger sister was with me.
As a previous customer service associate in various retail stores, I am sympathetic to those employees that deal with difficult clients on a regular basis. Not only only was my sale refused, but the «manager» accused me of illegal acts, provided no plausible solution to the issue she so willingly caused, and conveyed no understanding of customer service or sheer manners.

I was really excited to see this new addition to the desert. On my way to the tram, I stopped in to pick up a bottle of champagne. The store is huge. I walked all over the store looking for the cooler which houses the cold wine. After not finding it, I saw a sales guy standing around and asked where the cold champagne was located. He seemed to have an attitude. He stated, without knowing what I even wanted, «We only have nice wine cooled.» I wanted to say, «No, I only want Korbel bastard,» but I didn’t. I asked if Veuve Clicquot was too cheap for his cooler. He seemed to perk up at this point and said, I have something better. I ended up getting his suggestion which was at the same price point as the Veuve. I got the impression I was asking for Kendall Jackson by asking for the Veuve. I also said something about the wine tasting and he responded like I was a hobo off the streets looking for a handout,; «we only do that on the weekends.» In any event, I looked around the store and checked out the pricing which I didn’t note to be any less expensive than anyone else.
My impression without the assclown that helped me was that this is just a huge Bevmo. Interesting for sure, but nothing special. I was worried what this place would do to several local mom and pop wine stores in the desert (La Quinta and Palm Desert), but I think it is Total Wine that will have trouble attracting enough customers to pay for the huge inventory and rent. For my money, I’ll go to a small shop, receive the same, if not better pricing, and a more welcoming and knowledgeable sales staff.

Love, love, love this place! Adult Disneyland for the lover of all things alcohol. Larger and better selection than BevMo as well as much closer for those of us living in Palm Springs. The prices could be better, but I’ll pay more to have the selection the offer.
Tried their 10 cent tastings. Pretty good deal. 6 wines and 4 beers for a dime. Would’ve been way more enjoyable if the «we’re regulars» couple would STFU. Pretty bad being a barfly at a ten-​cent tasting, don’t think I’d own up to that.
If you’re looking for a hard-​to-​find brand, this is your place.