Who has advice about opening a bottle shop?

I don't know the market you're moving in to, but in general (everywhere in NC? Not sure about the Triangle) your competition isn't other bottle shops, its grocery stores. There's generally not enough craft-focused beer stores to cover the entire craft market as-is (hell, my tiny town has 2 craft beer stores, and both are busy) so you have to draw people in that would go to the grocery store instead. You aren't going to beat them on price, they move too much volume for that. So you'll either need to beat them on shopping experience (which is getting moderately tougher around where I'm at as grocery stores are starting to offer beer dens and the like), staff knowledge and helpfulness, or selection. Preferably all three. The more beer you have that can't be found in the grocery store the better, and even more so for breweries that aren't in the grocery store. And then your staff needs to be able to explain the beer selection and point out options for people that don't know what they want.

My favorite places are places that encourage you to open a bottle at the store, get a draft, whatever. Luckily that's easy to do in NC these days. The best craft beer stores in NC, in my experience, are places that are close to being bars.

 

Distribution is... fun. In NC you may be hard-pressed to get some of the releases that Raleigh and Charlotte get. A lot of that is just your distributors not picking up those beers or not being allocated those beers from the breweries. You'll need to get handy with the ABC website to see which distributor carries which breweries for your county. Most beer is distributed so picking it up at the brewery isn't an option. For beers that aren't distributed, there's two models (both called self-distribution confusingly enough):
- Breweries distribute themselves
- Shops have to go get the beers from the breweries

For breweries distributing themselves, you may be out of luck. It sounds like you're in a smaller area, so getting a brewery to come to you could be difficult. Unless you're close the route they'd take anywhere to a larger area, in which case you could be in luck.

For breweries where you go pick it up, the limits are up to you. Some places (like NoDa) limit who can pick up how much (mainly because I think they deliver to places in Charlotte and want to make sure they have enough), others you can probably pick up whatever you want to. But you'll need to build that relationship to figure out what breweries do this, which are worth it (both from a selling perspective and from a time perspective since you'll need to drive to the brewery).

I know a handful of distributors and listening to their stories is always a good time

 

As someone in Charlotte, I've noticed an increasing trend of Bottle Shops removing retail space to add more bar seating. Think Brawleys, Good Bottle, Kits etc. As noted here, you aren't going to compete with the grocer on price, so you won't be able to fall back on high volumes of core craft brands. People will buy their Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for the house while they grocery shop and come to you for experience, ambiance and special occasion stuff.

Something to think about: your town has no bottle shops and the Food Lion craft doesn't appear to move. Are you certain there's enough local demand for craft beer? Or will you just cannibalize the local brewery and vice versa, fighting for the same handful of folks who make beer the first deciding factor when deciding where to go out? Does your local brewery seem to be killing it, expanding and growing, or have they stagnated? Might tell you a lot about your market.

 

As someone who's worked for a distributor before I'll say be nice to your delivery man. Great customers get great service, including heads up about new beers, the freshest beer (for the most part, depends on how big the distributor is and who's pulling the orders), and flexibility with your delivery schedule and so forth - bad customers get the minimal service that they deserve; and that has nothing to do with money or volume, just how they act.

As a customer I would say price everything. A pricing gun and stickers is a minimal cost. I don't know how many beers I've passed over because I didn't know the price and didn't feel like asking or didn't have the time for it. Shelf tags are great, but if you're going that route keep up and keep them very clear.

Staff is of course very important. Training. Not to sell, but to be friendly and aware and available to help the customer find what they want. This is obvious. I think there's book was called "In Search Of Excellence". It's a little 80's-dated but worth reading. Management/motivation/etc.

Good luck. Don't let the distributors sway you towards something you don't want to sell; and don't let your beer get old.

 

I would advise against it..know a guy pretty well who is The Craft Beer Manager for one of the bigger Craft Beer Store(s) in Tampa Area and he told me two years ago already Sales were plummeting and it's kept getting worse since because everyone was just buying at local breweries...granted not every area has as good as local options that Tampa does but The Hyper Local Trend has clearly spread across the country as you see almost weekly now stories of National Craft Beer Brands struggles...what does seem to be taking off at least in my travels around Florida are Crowler/Draft Stores which have 25-30 options and where you can get a Draft and sit and/or get a Crowler or several to go...that's the wave of the future in retail stores and I see others in this thread have mentioned the same in their areas..good luck on whatever you decide

 

Kegorators aren't optimal for a bar/beer store but are doable. Walk-in cooler is definitely much preferred. You'll need to find multiple good distributors. Distributor portfolios are fairly small, even the big ones, so you can't fill a store with a single distributor, good or not. You'll more than likely end up with at least 5 or 6 just for beer. Then the wine distributors are different companies. There's a small handful of distributors that handle both beer and wine but usually aren't awesome at both. I can count maybe 1 or 2 that I think handle both beer and wine well. The NC ABC website has a section where you can lookup, by brand, who the distributor is for your area. I'd probably spend some time with that getting a feel for the brands you want to bring in and who carries those brands, then reach out and get a sales rep to come visit. Depending on how your distributors are in your area (most aren't state-wide though a couple are), you may or may not get blown off for a little while by some of the distributors.

 

Pretty much all of my normal places (Hops & Grapes and Craft Beer Cellar in Hickory, Tasty in Asheville, Salud in Charlotte) have a walk-in of some sort. Gives you a lot more flexibility on keg sizes. That's all in Western NC though so not much help to you.

 

Nice outdoor seating area is a plus. If it can be semi covered even better.

 

When driving through/around the triangle check out House of Hops off of Glenwood Ave in raleigh. Also worth a look most definitely is both Sam’s locations in Durham, quik stop and the one off of 54, as well as the glass jug. All amazing set ups and offerings. And. Great usage of space. I second the comment about optimizing your outdoor space. Good luck! Kinston and the 252 need this growth to work!

 

Just don't buy into a Craft Beer Cellar franchise - https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Craft-Beer-Cellar-Reviews-E1539904.htm

 

I work for a distributor and we are in SC and NC. Our beer portfolio in NC is tiny but growing. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. You have good advice on this thread so far!

 

This might sound weird, but don't be too proud to special order or even stock a couple domestics. At one point a local shop wouldn't deal with them at all, but they came to realize they were turning down perfectly good money, and that the customers buying domestics were often open to trying new things. "Oh you drink Bud? We have that, but you might like this other beer too." Good way to start a conversation and win folks over, and much friendlier than just saying "no"

*Obviously in no way am I saying you should have full displays of Miller light 12 packs or whatever