The need for 3 liquor stores is good for competition. I always drove to MGM in Burnsville because I think Savage Muni liquor stores are overpriced and they could do that since they don't have competition. Now with MGM close by, maybe that will finally change!

I was out making some final purchases for the annual Thibodeaux Christmas party(*).
Since I had to run by the Bank, I decided to see what MGM had to offer - after making a few purchases there, I went over to Marketplace to compare (and finish my list) - here are my impressions.

I like the way MGM had their wines laid out, they had some grouping by country and by grape. Marketplace has it on the more expensive wines, but it was hit and miss on the others. Also seemed to have a more diverse country selection than Marketplace - that may have been just because of the layout, but I found each of the countries I was looking for at MGM, it was not as easy at Marketplace.

MGM had a better selection of some wines and more of the mid-range wines ($10-20), but Marketplace has a much better high end selection.

On pricing it was about even. Thought a higher end Marketplace wine on sales, the price was hard to beat. On non-sale wines, or wines that always seem to be on sale (such as California pink/"girly" wines) both seemed to be a few cents from each other.

Both places also were helpful without making you feel stupid. MGM offered to order a wine they did not have in stock. Marketplace provided some neat information on the grape for the wine, presented not in a pretentious way but more in a Cliff Clavin, geeky way (from me that is a compliment).

Only complaint about MGM is they don't carry Shiner Bock (If you have never had this beer, you owe it to yourself to try).

I plan to use both stores.

(*)And if you didn't get your invite yet, send an email to party@savagerepublican.com and you might still get one :)