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Alan John, CEO of BevMo, holds of his favorite wines -- a Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley -- in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Staff)

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WALNUT CREEK — Brent Peterson cruised BevMo on Wednesday for the first time and walked out with two bottles of 2007 Weston Chardonnay for less than $10. "It's almost like you have your own helper with you," the Orinda resident said. "Costco is inexpensive too, but if you ask for help, you get pointed in two different directions."

The newbie customer had just neatly summed up two of the biggest attractions of the 15-year-old chain, founded in Concord in 1994: Price and personal attention.

Founded during a lingering recession, the private company nevertheless flourished as robustly as a grape plant, its stores spreading like vines across California and then Arizona, growing into a 1,600-employee, 100-store concern with more than $500 million in 2008 sales and higher sales expected this year. The company expects to hire some 400 seasonal employees for the holidays.

Unlike the typical corner liquor store crammed with cigarettes and lottery tickets, BevMo doesn't even allow people under 21 to enter. The Bay Area's 35 spacious stores with their bare concrete floors and wild assortments of soft drinks, various types of alcohol, snacks and clerks in green or burgundy shirts are amusing to visit. Raindrop-shaped frosted glass bottles, as with Rain vodka, or obscure sodas like Moxie ("Tastes just like a Creamcicle!") populate the shelves, along with glassware and snacks.

Stories like Peterson's help explain how the purveyor of 3,000 varieties

"Wine and spirits at bars, hotels and restaurants are suffering during the recession," said Craig Wolf, chief executive of industry association Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America. "People are going to retail stores, buying and drinking at home. As on-premises sales have declined, retail sales have grown."

Peterson got his Chardonnay in one of BevMo's popular "buy one, get one for five cents" sale of more than wines, paying essentially around $5 a bottle.

"Value wine brands (those priced in the $5 to $10 range) are doing well," said Wolf.

"Value is king," said Alan Johnson, BevMo's chief executive, who became CEO this February. "I was initially hired as a consultant to assess the purchase by Tower Brook Capital, which bought the firm in 2007, and I fell in love with the company," Johnson said.

It's clear that Johnson is excited about his new role. From the minute his black BMW with the "I heart BevMo" license plate pulled up in front of the Walnut Creek store, the CEO bubbled over with energy. Stationing himself outside the store, as customers walked out, the native Australian asked, "Did you find everything you needed?"

Along these lines, when the normally pro-BevMo "Good Burp" blog ran a post criticizing a BevMo employee, Johnson commented on the blog, giving the blogger his e-mail address. "His blog post sounded like a jilted lover," Johnson said. "I said to myself, 'I'm not going to lose him.'" The amazed blogger contacted Johnson and the problem was corrected.

This isn't to suggest that all is sweetness and light for BevMo. The company laid off nearly 20 percent of its headquarters staff in November 2008 in anticipation of the downturn. Also, "all the retailers are dealing with pressure from Costco," Wolf said, and Total Wine & More, a Maryland-based company similar to BevMo, is moving west, opening stores in California.

Johnson shrugs off the competition. He points to BevMo's wine experts and other staff that provide personalized service as an advantage over Costco. As for Total Wine & More, the CEO said BevMo is doing some expansion of its own.

"I'd like to get to 200 stores in the next four to five years and expand to other states," Johnson said. "That will be my legacy. I didn't found this company; I am the architect of its growth."

Reach Janis Mara at 925-952-2671. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jmara.