Drop Shop

Overview

Brunswick East lands a new bottle shop that is changing the game in how we buy wine. Drop Shop rejects the expected format of a bottle shop, where wines are organised by variety and region, and rather organises its drops by the way that people actually shop for them: by occasion and by budget. 

Dan Sims, the founder of Pinot Palooza and Wine Victoria Chair, Courtney Keegan, drinks retail specialist hailing from Dan Murphy's and Blackhearts & Sparrows, and Luke McKinnon, founder of communications agency Common State, know their way around a wine aisle. They also know that the old model doesn't necessarily translate to the way people actually buy their booze. 

"We want to create a new category, an occasion-based liquor format that strips out the clutter and speaks directly to the individual who's tired of choosing between a warehouse and a wine lecture," says McKinnon. 

Entering Drop Shop, you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in a Japanese convenience store or contemporary gallery space. The pint-sized, neon-lit corner shop was designed by We Are Humble, with branding by Hamish Childs, to create an easy-to-understand, refreshingly original and aesthetically pleasing venue. 

"We've seen entire categories transformed by better retail. The experience has become part of the product. For something fun that people genuinely love, liquor retail has remained surprisingly unchanged. That's crazy to me. What an opportunity," says McKinnon. 

The team's new format is intentionally simple: three categories organised by occasion and price, Weekday ($15-$25), Party ($25-$40) and Fancy ($40+). And Sims and Keegan have deliberately kept the variety narrow, with Victorian and rising producers given priority. 

"Most retailers would probably describe themselves as highly curated, but the average bottle shop stocks more than 1000 wines. At Drop Shop, we literally only have room for 150, so everything has to really earn its spot on the shelf. Think of each category as its own shortlist. The idea isn't to limit choice — it's to make choosing easier," says Sims. 

At Drop Shop, the customer's experience is as important as their final choice. "People want convenience, speed and reliability. What's changed is the expectation that it should come with significantly better curation and a nicer in-store experience. We've created a space you move through instinctively and walk out of feeling good," says McKinnon. 

Images: C Hawks. 

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