Third-Party
This isn't advertised and I couldn't even remember how it happened last night when I was browsing the site.
The Whiksy List is like an aggregator of several independent bottle shops/sites and a few distilleries. I was checking prices for something I wanted and ended up there. They also have their own shop, so when you click on a bottle, there'll be prices from all the other bottlos that have them and show you the best price. I recognised a few smaller sites that have great selections and prices. Shipping is free over $200 to most areas, but the $200 has to be from the same store.
From what I understand, this thing just launched, is like a loyalty program, and the annual fee is normally $100, which gets you:
- Free shipping with insurance on full bottles purchased from The Whisky List Shop (not the partner shops, that's still $200, but TWL is the best price maybe 80% of the time)
- Discounted access to member's events, promotions and offers
- $10 credit for every 500 points
- $25 credit on your birthday
- Whisky recommendations from "their team of experts"
This is how the points system works: purchases will earn you 1 point per $1 spent, with the exception of selected whiskies including TWL exclusives which will earn you 2 points per $1 spent (this is what I'm most interested in because I'll pretty much get at least $10 credit for every purchase)
The discount will be applied at checkout
This is probably not worth it for everyone, but I looked at their regular selection, independent bottlings and the exclusive bottles and the prices seem alright. As a comparison I was a member of SMWS for years, but stopped around 2016 because they released the same distilleries nearly every month, and I was like, "how many bottles of Caol Ila and Ardmore do I need?" But I've heard they're a bit better now.
I have no idea how being a Whisky Rewards Club member will be like. This is new; I think I got a pop-up or something and I thought (profanity) it 100 bucks, why not, then I got the 25% off at checkout. To me, the advantages are: more variety of exclusives (compared to SMWS when I was a member), good selection of indy bottlings of Scottish distilleries I like, pretty good selection of bourbon and rye, the aggregated price comparisons, free insured shipping and the fact that this will pay for itself after a few orders. There's also a social element where members can post reviews. I'm not sure if there's any interaction but it could be fun.
I had to type this whole post because I couldn't copy paste most of the info, and had to search for a news article because there's no links or any mention of it on the homepage. You're welcome.
i just subscribe to your posts tbh