A litany of reasons why another dull chain wine retail shop is unwelcome in my neighborhood:
1. Le Verre Volé's terrific cave is right down the street.
2. La Cave de l'Insolite - probably my favorite cave in Paris - is just a little further down, on rue de la Folie-Mericourt.
3. Au Nouveau Nez is about a 3 minute walk away on rue Saint Maur. You can sit and have a drink there.
4. There is already another dull chain wine retail place - Le Repaire de Bacchus - literally right across the street. They have 30-40 locations in Paris, which I suppose is small-time compared to Nicolas' 522 locations in France alone.
5. There is already another conspicuously quiet location of Nicolas all of 2 minutes' walk away on Blvd Richard Lenoir.
6. If you really want some slick faceless supermarket wine, you have several Franprix locations nearby.
7. See here for a somewhat lengthy explanation of why mass-retail just doesn't work for wine.
I could go on. Honestly, the only place I would be happy to see another Nicolas location is in London, or any number of other English cities, where to my continual shock it is still extraordinarily difficult to find even barely potable wine.
Anyway, join me in unofficially boycotting corporate opportunist johnny-come-lately wine shops like this one.
