Bourbon County 2017

This has been very enlightening.

 

Thanks, appreciate the thoughtful (and non-snarky) response. I may start making my way down to the Willowbrook Binny's more often

I guess I mistook the "new releases" shelf with being a "limit 1 / rare releases shelf" i.e their (DG's) prior system of having those releases behind the counter to limit each customer only receiving 1 at a time.

I get what you are saying about Northwoods, but with all of the talk of how plentiful Regular is around the area I'm somewhat surprised that would qualify to be held in back.

 

And for this exact reason I avoid Binny's as much as humanly possible. I could go into Binny's every day for a year and still not see the same sales floor person twice and somehow I have to hope they notice I'm a regular? The dishonesty and flat out shady practices take their toll. Why not just have a rewards program with points that allows the best customers access to the top beers? That is the most transparent process and in the information age pretty damn easy to do- I couldn't argue with that. You tell me my I don't have enough reward points for a beer, got it. You lie to my face you don't have it and then promptly give one to someone else? My money goes elsewhere.

 

For anyone around Joliet, Chicago street pub has 2016 prop on tap for $7 for a 12 oz pour (into a mason jar for some reason, but still a good price).

 

As someone who falls into that regular customer thing that generally gets hooked up with the stuff in the back where I'm at, I'll echo @HouseofWortship's question:

Why don't you just use the damn Binny's card to track and reward? The spirits guys in my store do, but the beer guys do not.

 

As a former employee I have never once understood why we did not do this. They do it for Pappy and BTAC. Not sure why they dont for BCS and other sought after stuff. If a tiny chain like the wine and cheese place in STL can handle it so can binnys.

 

And why don't beer purchases count towards points at Binny's? I've shopped at Binny's consistently for the past 10 years and have spent thousands of dollars. I think I have a whopping 30 points on my Binny's account because I only buy beer and whiskey. Are wine customers the only ones Binny's cares about? If so, why devote more than half of the store space to other products?

 

I honestly just always assumed they only care about the real whales; those guys who are buying cases of wine every weekend, or dropping hundreds/thousands at a time on whiskey. Beer nerds may give consistent business, but we're usually not spending money at the same level as those guys, so they're the only ones that "matter" in terms of getting the hookup.

It's one of the reasons I've severely lessened my spending at Binny's; I still really like the place(s), but I'd rather spend money at a place that acknowledges my existence. I shop at off-times, so I could be a Binny's 10 times without seeing the same employee (like @HouseofWortship mentioned), which functionally means I don't exist there.

 

I ask this literally every time I talk to a new person at my local binnys. I figure eventually if they hear it enough times....

 

It's probably easier to manage for a couple bottles of rare bourbons than cases of beer.

 

The Binny's card were first called the FFWLC, Frugal Fine Wine Lovers Club. It was only for wine discounts. Recently it has morphed into our current Binny's shopper card that will get you wine points and sales prices. Beer has gotten crazy in the last few years. Almost every week there are a few beers that people are hunting for. Looking up cards and purchase histories, determining point values, defining who deserves what, tagging, reserving and storing beers in the back for literally hundreds of different beers is a huge undertaking. I'm not saying we will never get there but there are obstacles. Our beer guys are trying to do what they can. I hear you all on the points for Beer. It is definitely something that has come up before in meetings and something that does get talked about regularly.

 

As opposed to doing....exactly that except in your head?

I mean, that's the choice here, right? Your beer guys decide all of this stuff in their head, or the system does it for them.

 

I get it...wine people are typically spending a lot more than beer people. But if customers received 1 point per dollar, the benefit would be as good as the amount you spend. I'm glad to hear it's been talked about. It's just frustrating to spend so much money at Binny's and see the same stupid point total at the bottom of every receipt after every purchase.

 

Yes, our system is not set up for this tracking but it may not be as black and white as it seems. There are so many variables. Does every beer have the same value? Are macro points worth as much as craft points(margin implications)? Should whiskey or wine points count? Should any go to the shelf or should it all be held for customers? Should the 12 "best" customers get the first case of every release? How long do they have to decide if they want this release or not? Do we email or call these people each release? What about the beers that don't make it to every store? How do we decide which beers get allocated? Do the points count at every store? How long is the tracking period?
We try to do our best but when demand so far outpaces supply inevitably there are going to be many disappointed people. It would be much easier for us to just put all of the beer on the shelf and get rid of it as quick as possible but we give our beer managers the freedom to try and take care of some regulars. It is not always perfect but they are trying. We are always open to suggestions on how to make it better.

 

Actually working in IT and programming it's very easily done through a database and probably only needs minor tweaking that could be done in a few hours since you already are setup that way with other products. You already have the customers info so contacting them with big releases can be all automated. Beer is nothing new, you can't tell any of us that Binny's didn't see beer taking off this way in the last few years. They should catch up with the times like a lot of smaller local bottle shops have. Instead of talking about this stuff all the time at meetings how about throw out there that decision makers actually make a decision....

 

It's an interesting debate and while I don't know what's worth it for Binny's but it could always be helpful to look at other industries doing similar things - Airlines, hotels, etc. While there may be no one that has everyone happy, they do have a system. Again, it just may not be worth financially for Binny's.

 

Thanks. I promise to pass this along.

 

You can put a lid on a mason jar.....

 

I think these are all super fair points. While I'd love to see a system for limited releases be put in place my gripe is more basic. If I buy a case of wine I get points that turn into money off a future purchase but never for beer. Is that a margin problem? Like the markup for wine is significantly higher than beer?

 

I was always told it was a legal thing. but can't claim to know for sure.