Dream Beer Store!

- Dedicated mix-a-six display case
- Dedicated sampling area with complimentary light snacks
- Deli case (cheese, cured meats, fish)
- Lounge area (where a potentially disinterested significant other might rest their barking dogs.)

Just a few ideas off the top of my head. If you can get all of those, you'll be way above average for the sort of Craft-centric bottle shops I frequent. Good luck!

 

Wine and Spirits. If I need more than beer I won't be going to a store that only sells beer.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16850/?view=ratings

that was a beer store that was a sister to (at least at the time) the best beer bar in america. or not. maybe the moan and dove was rated higher at that point. it was like 10 years ago. i don't remember. anyway, it was a pretty place. glassware to the ceiling. lots of wood. cheeses, i think, right as you walked in. great selection of belgians and new england and beyond.

that said, i'd just as often go to gimbel's if i happened to be in the neighborhood, or head over to the wine gallery on route 9, which was further away. or even over to marty's if i felt nostalgic.

point is, i loved the publick house, but i wouldn't shop at their store. their pedigree was fantastic, but the love for beer in the bar turned cold the minute you walked into the shop. the guys working there knew just as much. the selection was just as good. but i didn't want to shop there. i never felt they wanted me to shop there.

adding chairs or having beer reps might get people in on a friday night when they want to be social, but you're not going to get them to come back on a tuesday when they just want a couple of beers for the fridge. you're selling a product people can get anywhere. if people feel their money is welcome, or more importantly appreciated, they'll come back even if you're slinging craft beer from a closet (see also alvey's first place in texatonka). no amount of features is going to get people to return - it's the people and the way you treat the customers.

 

If you open up by where I live out near Oak Brook and have good quality fresh beer, I'll gladly give you a portion of my pay. If you import some good Aussie craft beer, then you can have my bank account

 

If you're running a store then you can't afford to have a lounge. That space is valuable. An abundance of glassware varieties would be perfect and could be a great up-sell to go with beer recommendations.

For being shopper friendly, if you were to have a policy of never hiding beers behind the counter and instead have a dedicated space for new/special releases I would shop your place first over any other store.

 

I'm surprised at all of the responses talking about lounges and cheese displays.

The number one thing I care about is ample cold storage. The more refrigerated space they have, the better.

 

It's almost like they don't realize bars exist.

 

Refrigeration, selection, including wine/spirits, and some knowledge on beer is all that I really desire. The place I frequent isn't anything fancy, but the staff is friendly/knowledgeable, and they have a lot of beers I want.

 

As someone who works specialty liquor retail, I can assure you there is no way to deal with special releases (beer, bourbon, ect.) that doesn't anger 99% of your costumers. Moreso, these releases are such a small fraction of your sales, and take up such a vastly disproportionate amount of your time, that there is no point in spending extra time worrying about them. To make matters worse there are always a fair amount of stores that charge pennies over cost for some of these rare releases causing the majority of costumers to fell ripped off by stores that are placing their regular markup on them.

You'll need to grow thick skin in regards to special releases. Like I already said, they upset most costumers. Most deal with the disappointment well. Some not so much, and you, or your employees, will be the target of their anger (I've never been called an asshole for not having a rare beer. The same cannot be said for Pappy Van Whinkle).

My ultimate advice to you is to give great service to all, keep your beer cold, keep it fresh, and hire people who know beer, wine and spirits, and have fun talking about them. Then keep those employees by paying them a living wage.

 

You'll know your loyal customers and what to set aside for them.

 

For speciality releases, here's an idea.
The largest store in Kansas City does this for their van winkle and buffalo trace antique collection.
-every time you go to a bourbon tasting they put your name in a hat.
-at the end of the year they have a pappy lotto and you get to buy it for msrp if your name is drawn. It honestly works pretty well. You would need to adjust it based on how many types of beer and how many releases there are.

 

Obviously you'll get a ton of opinions here, but my two favorite ways I've seen it handled:
1. Split your allotment and do a 5PM release for people who have to work during the day.

2. In-store lottery. This is a lot more work for you up front, but alleviates some of the angst of people driving from store to store looking for additional bottles. It will also weed out some of the "chasers." I'm sure many people here will disagree with this method, but I also think it subtly rewards your regulars who are in the store frequently. They will be around to sign up anyway; others will have to make a separate trip just to sign up.

 

Although imperfect, these are the best solutions we've found at my store.

 

As a new store, you're not going to decide how to allocate special releases. The distributor or brewery will decide that for you. Unless you have the purchasing power of a Total Wine, Hyvee, etc. Liquor stores that limit special releases are doing so because the the distributor or brewery is allocating it already.

You want Bourbon County, you better sell tons of budweiser and goose island, you want kbs, sell founder's centennial, breakfast, all day, you want Darkness, you sell Furious, Overrated.
Even then you might not get allocated any.

Lastly, not to be too discouraging, but being passionate about beer is not enough. In the Twin Cities, Four Firkins was a specialty beer store. Employees were knowledgable, service was good, selection was good. The store went out of business.

 

Yes, yes, and yes. You are spot on.

 

He stayed mostly loyal? lol Well there you go. Bourbon county apparently required full on loyalty. . I do support loyalty points systems as the most equitable approach (for both stores & customers) for limited releases. Obviously as a store owner you can do as you see fit but when I hear stores are holding back bottles for people, that's when a lot of the BS comes into play. Admittedly, there is a lot of BS in craft beer.

 

I don't have first hand knowledge in retail but given the experience with Four Firkins here in the Twin Cities I think it may be difficult in some markets to support a beer store without liquor and/or wine. Given different laws in other states that allow for on premise draft and growler sales other may have different experiences but here in Minnesota I think beer only would be a difficult model to make successful.