After being a regular customer there for several months after starting work in Evanston (stopping in usually at least once a week), and talking to the beer buyer at the store a couple weeks ago, he told that Bolt Cutter and Bourbon County variants would no longer be "raffled," and would indeed be first come first serve. This was to my relief, as 1. I had been given the run around before on whether things were being raffled or not, and 2. I never seemed to have any luck with the raffles, and although it seemed pretty iffy to have bad enough luck to never be called on at least a few of these raffles, I was ok chalking it up to bad luck. I called in this morning to find out that there was a list for Bolt Cutter and Cherry Rye that was already filled, and had been for a bit. Beer guy admitted that he lied to "soften the blow." If it was just this once that they seemed to give me the run around, then I think I'd still be more understanding. But it seems like the folks and Binny's in Skokie are consistently willing to misinform their customers. At the very least, I can at least head to a Binny's that is straight with their customers.
I used to live in Evanston, and have documented my experiences with this store in other threads. I've entered 4 raffles and never won, and after losing the last one was ticked to find out that they had a guaranteed list for the same release. It's been clear to me that this store allocates their rare releases (which they now admit) while pretending that everyone has an equal shot. If a liquor store shuts me out of rare releases, you better believe I'll take my business elsewhere. If they straight-up lied to my face, I'd tell the world too. EDIT: Glad the hear the below poster has had good experiences there. FWIW I've never been unhappy with the employees, just with their convoluted (and basically dishonest) rare release allocation.
I was on the list for King Henry and Coffee. I won both times. I have always had a cordial experience there.
I've been to Skokie numerous times and I've had good experiences there. The prior Beer Manager Jason has moved on and TJ is now the BM. I've had my cases of "no" there but i think they're good folks and haven't had any problems there to say.
Yeah other places do it, it is just annoying having to ask someone to get a beer form the back that they could just put on the shelf then act like you just told them thier mother and father were actually brother and sister when they hand it to you.
TJ is great. I prefer his method much better then the previous manager. Its not that hard to get on a list you only need to pay attention to whats coming out and if your in there once a week like you say then just ask to be on it. Usually if he doesnt have one started yet he will start it then, as long as its not months in advance. So quit bitching OP and pay attention to whats going on. EDIT: It's not like I get all the limited releases either. I've lost my far share of raffles or been late on getting on lists. So i've had my fair share of dissapointment but thats my fault and not Binny's in Skokie.
It is hard to get on a list if the beer buyer doesn't let you on the list. In fact, it's impossible. Despite being a regular and "paying attention", this is exactly what happened to the OP. So telling him to "quit bitching" is laying blame in precisely the wrong place.
I'd actually be fine with the method of raffling, or maybe even fine with allocation+raffling method! I think most of us understand at this point that these releases are just as much of a headache for the retailers as they are for us consumers. Whatever the store wants to do is fine. But TJ did lie to my face in the store, and admitted to it. That's what's not cool. This actually isn't even the first time that I'm sure they've been dishonest on these releases, it's just the first time that I got tired enough of it to call them out on it. The employees do seem fine in regards to everything else in the store. I had a good experience talking to a couple employees about whiskey there - and have had good experience talking to the beer guys as well, when I wasn't trying to figure out what kind of weird runaround they were doing for their releases.
I don't trust them to put on a fair and square raffle, and am kind of glad they've ended that. I just expect that when the next rare release hits (what's next, Central Waters?) they still won't let just anyone on the list. It'll be the same story: friends/insiders get on the list, while everyone else gets shut out. All they have to do is sit down and write out a list of 12-24 friends (basically what it sounds like they did for the first wave of BCS, and quite possibly Cherry Rye/Coffee) and *poof* the list is full! IMHO these releases aren't really a "nightmare" for Skokie, they're just a way to hook up their besties with the rarest beers.
I've been saying it for years but they need to come up with an SOP for ALL the stores when it comes to rare releases. But it seems like some people are just afraid to pull the trigger on a set game plan for ALL the stores. /used to work there, getting a kick out this thread.
