Opening a Bottle Shop

This.
Location, location, location.

There are maps created and available out there that have plotted all the BEER locations throughout SoCal. Or you can even create one yourself if you're doing research. You'll notice pockets of areas that can be considered "dry."

But like someone else eluded to earlier, our land's getting quite saturated day by day so it would be good to get your location locked in asap (if not done so already).

Anyone know how a few more bottleshops opening up in SoCal would affect the distribution here?

 

I really hope you're joking on this ... Otherwise this could be the dumbest thing I have ever read.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. Youre going to have to get in good with your brewery reps. Alot of the limited releases now are already presold before they come into the distribution center. The reps will usually ask months in advance if you want to carry a certain item. The Dissident from Deschutes was completely sold before we even got the beer in. It stayed out of the salesman handhelds for ordering and they had to follow a list of who got what.

 

You said bottle shop/tap room...so you are going to be serving beer? If so, when people drink they tend to get hungry. Will you also be offering food?

I'm in SoCal. Where were you considering opening? It seems there is already a saturation in SoCal. Total Wine and BevMo sell lots of bottles, with Total Wine having a leg up on quality stuff like Sculpin cans.

As was stated before, there's a built-in heirarchy among shops. Long time customers get first dibs on the good stuff. You can't open your new shop and expect to be getting Pliny or Parabola right away.

Good luck for sure, but there's lots of work/research to do from idea to fruition.

 

I think it's pretty straightforward: you need to have a selection that's better than what people can get at Bevmo or the supermarket. Does anybody really care about anything else?

And FWIW, I most respect a bottle shop that puts all of their stock out on the shelves, and I don't mind it if they put a limit on purchases for certain harder to find beers. I don't like the "you have to know somebody to get Pliny" attitude you find in some places. I'd rather go in knowing that if they have it, it'll be on the shelf, even if means I can only get two bottles.

 

Yes. The other 99.9% of people who drink beer yet aren't looking for a limited release Belgian-style IPA aged in three different port barrels with brett and lacto care.

 

Oh and don't forget once the beers on the counter, it becomes an auction. Lets get the fat guy from Storage Wars to handle the bidding.

C'mon pal.

 

have you been to Sunset Beer Company in Echo Park? to me that's the ideal of what a bottle shop / tasting room should be.

(no i don't work there)

 

A place like sunset beer company (without the shitty parking) would be awesome.

 

Opening a new bottle shop well be difficult. Especially if your trying to land limited release stuff.
You have to be established already with some of the sale reps and so on and so on.. And So Cal is getting very saturated.. Harder and harder to get rare stuff. Don't worry to much about the Beer geeks, cause the hardcore beer geeks will go where the Shelf whales appear. The best thing you can do is have great customer service and treat every customer the same!!!!!! There's a lot more to it but good luck..

 

Your sarcasm detector is malfunctioning. :/

 

Wait, there's people who drink "beer" but aren't looking for a limited release Belgian IPA aged in three different port barrels? Well fuck them.

 

If you put it in a bowtie shaped can with color changing mountains and a vented can top they might be more interested.

 

My wife likes to actually spend time in there. That right there is a huge plus.

 

rotating selection baby. also don't try and push Golden Road on me

 

Don't be so sure that was a sarcastic post, there is a thread here about having problems pouring a beer from a can.

 

yeah it's a real inviting space. cool dudes who work there, always have good music. lots of cute chicks go there (for whatever reason - i guess craft beer is catching on). it's a winner in my book

 

Open up in Santa Clarita.

 

1. Good parking

2. Keep all date sensitive beers (I.E. IPA's, pale ales, etc.) cold.

3. Don't leave those date sensitive beers on the shelves past their prime (i hate walking in to a liquor store, picking up an IPA and seeing the Julian code read 6 months ago, really makes me distrust the store).

4. Be willing to venture past just selling bottled beer.

5. Keep an up to date website with real-time inventory! Use social media to your advantage...

 

Most things have been said, but not everything.

I'm seeing keep A/IPAs cold pop up a lot, which is great (I really like giant walk-in coolers), but light is the bigger enemy, right? Novel lighting design may help these beers stay healthy for the time frame you leave them on the floor. When I see stores leave the lighting for their beer section/cooler on overnight, it makes me a little sad. No one needs to see the beer after closing, those beers should be in the dark. Light filters, timers, motion-detectors, etc. can minimize harmful light exposure.

A presence on BA/RB/twitter/Untappd would be cool. Some breweries and stores are active in the SW forum here, and are very friendly.
A good, updated website would be nice. At the least, have your tap list on a free webpage (facebook/google/ whatever) and on taplister.
Make your website mobile friendly, no weird formats/plugins/java-popouts. The exception is if you have a search feature for your entire stock that needs more complex web-design. If you do, still try to have a basic beer list for phones, maybe not your whole stock but a page of highlighted beers, or your five favorites for ten styles or from 15 breweries. If I am near a new store and can see on my phone they have some solid beers and a few 'interesting' ones (subjective), I might stop in.

As far special beer, it might be easiest to have it on a board or print out, so people don't have to roam the aisles or bug you about it for every new Stone/FW/BP/GI/etc. special release. If you're limiting count, you can get it from the back for them and not have anyone trying to check out with a case of (shelf whale). The information is available to everyone, and size, price, and limits are clearly stated.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but proper glass styles for your taps is a plus. Some of the things I've seen in a shaker pint make me...slightly hostile? I'm kidding, kind of. Even a shaker with some ounce lines is an improvement, or the stackable British pub style ones IMO (I like their look a bit better).