Results 51 to 75 of 80
Thread: Owning/Operating a Bottle Shop?
-
10-05-2016, 09:28 AM #51
Sativa and indica chips.
"timberridge is terminally vapid" -- a fortune cookie in Yueyang
-
10-05-2016, 09:55 AM #52
-
10-05-2016, 09:59 AM #53"fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
-
10-05-2016, 10:06 AM #54
-
10-05-2016, 10:10 AM #55
In WA you're not allowed to have open products on the premises of retail stores unless you are trying to return a shitty cartridge that they will blame you for leaking
“I have a responsibility to not be intimidated and bullied by low life losers who abuse what little power is granted to them as ski patrollers.”
-
10-05-2016, 10:15 AM #56
-
10-05-2016, 10:27 AM #57
-
10-05-2016, 10:44 AM #58
Back to the bottle shop idea, what state are you in? Many are pretty cheap for just a beer/wine retail license. Like was mentioned margins are slimmer than most retail. Where I see people succeed are those that have some knowledge (Some sort of Som training) and can hand sell wine. That way people aren't just buying Bota boxes and Coors Light. Offer the knowledge to pair wines and beer with events and needs of the customers and grow your reputation that way. When people come in looking for one bottle they'll often leave with 6 if you give them solid options. Run deals for bulk purchases for things like weddings as well.
Hard liquor licensees are more expensive and harder to come by, and if the state controls it their is barely any margin.
Ms. Snapt is a Som and in the wine/beer business.
-
10-05-2016, 10:49 AM #59
your wife is somali!
haram haramZone Controller
"He wants to be a pro, bro, not some schmuck." - Hugh Conway
"DigitalDeath would kick my ass. He has the reach of a polar bear." - Crass3000
-
10-05-2016, 10:51 AM #60
-
10-05-2016, 10:55 AM #61Banned
- Join Date
- Oct 2003
- Location
- In Your Wife
- Posts
- 8,291
This would be for a bottle shop in Oregon, where beer/wine/cider licensing is pretty cheap. The emphasis would be on rare/craft beer and wine. I don't know much about wine, but I was a fan of craft beer before it was even legal for me to drink, and I'm working through the process to become a certified cicerone, so I would have some "credentials" as a beer expert to tout along with the shop.
I assume margins are a bit better on draft beverages and growler/crowler fills, right? I would like to integrate that into the business and have space on-site for people to try beers.
-
10-05-2016, 11:00 AM #62
This is the only way.
Here in B'ham there were dozens of guys with business plans, financing, and locations tied up ready to go before the law was even changed. So many, that this market was overserved within the first year. By the second year, many of those stores had gone out of business.
-
10-05-2016, 11:07 AM #63
-
10-05-2016, 11:11 AM #64
Yes the fills have better margins for sure. Get to know your distributors and reps, show them the willingness to buy special and new releases so they show them to you prior to anyone else in town. If you have the cash flow you can gamble on buying out the on hand inventory of smaller distributors for certain products so you're the only guy in town with it for a while (for smaller operations this can often be only a case or two). Learn wine, an intro course from the Som folks is well worth it. Any jo schmo can go pick out a tasty looking IPA. Picking a wine to pair with a specific occasion is a hell of a lot harder and more valuable to consumers in many markets. Plus the folks who value that spend money.
DD the lady isn't a Master Som but working her way up the chain. Pretty crazy to watch her pick a varietal, producer, region and vintage on a blind test.
-
10-05-2016, 12:21 PM #65
Going back to the bottle/beer/wine shop... IMO, there isn't much room in the market in western WA and OR just selling bottles/fills at retail. As mtn girl said, you can get your growler filled at convenience stores and gas stations in this town. And the grocery stores have a pretty good selection of beers at prices that the little guys can't match. There was a bottle shop here in Bellingham run by a guy who used to brew at the oldest brewery in town, and it went out of business.
To actually make money you need an angle.
There's a newish place called Elizabeth Station, that's primarily a bottle shop, but also has 16 taps for growler fills, and onsite consumption. They also have limited food / convenience store snacks, and food trucks in the parking lot 4 nights a week. What sets them apart from being just a bottle shop is that they are a community hangout. I can't walk in without bumping into someone I know.
The owner is my neighbor, and he told me that it's loosely based on Super Deli Mart which was a convenience store in West Seattle that had taps. And like any other convenience store, there is no age limit, so kids are welcome (originally, dogs too, but some busybody reported them to the city so dogs are now on the patio only).
But they improved on that model by engaging the local (i.e. PNW) brewers, so they had brewer's nights / tap takeovers where a rep - or in many cases the owners - would host an event showcasing their products, and giving away swag. Then they started to do co-labs with small breweries which actually produced some pretty good beers.
Do something like that, in the right location, with a solid business plan, and you could definitely make money.
Also have a look at Broken Top Bottle Shop and Growler Phil's/Primal Cuts, both in Bend.Last edited by pisteoff; 10-05-2016 at 02:37 PM.
-
10-05-2016, 12:47 PM #66Zone Controller
"He wants to be a pro, bro, not some schmuck." - Hugh Conway
"DigitalDeath would kick my ass. He has the reach of a polar bear." - Crass3000
-
10-05-2016, 12:52 PM #67
I was just in Bottleworks yesterday and it's looking pretty sad in there. Probably not the best business to get into right now with margins and competition from grocery stores. I bet they are only still in business due to the owners Having other businesses to subsidize it.
-
10-05-2016, 01:52 PM #68
-
10-05-2016, 01:57 PM #69Zone Controller
"He wants to be a pro, bro, not some schmuck." - Hugh Conway
"DigitalDeath would kick my ass. He has the reach of a polar bear." - Crass3000
-
10-05-2016, 02:30 PM #70yelgatgab
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Shadynasty's Jazz Club
- Posts
- 10,249
Owning/Operating a Bottle Shop?
Craft beer may be peaking - no idea - but going places to drink beer definitely is not. Here people drive 30+ minutes from town to get drunk in farm country. Breweries are killing it. Some of them make some really good beer, but most is just okay. Doesn't matter, on a nice afternoon, they're packed to the gills. The new thing is breweries with food trucks instead of a kitchen.
Line up some serious cash, build something modern industrial rustic farmhouse with gender neutral bathrooms with sliding barn doors. Hire a decent brew master and sell some burgers and pizza. Outside seating and cornhole are required.Remind me. We'll send him a red cap and a Speedo.
-
10-05-2016, 02:41 PM #71
^^^ totally.
people said coffee was peaking way before it actually did, and post peak coffee consumption is still way up.
-
10-05-2016, 03:11 PM #72Banned
- Join Date
- Oct 2003
- Location
- In Your Wife
- Posts
- 8,291
This is what I have in mind as a vision for the place. More than just a beer/wine store, but a neighborhood spot. There is a spot in southeast Portland called Belmont Station that is very similar to what I have in mind. Maybe it isn't a viable business, but it seems like there are neighborhoods or cities where there is a market for it.
-
10-05-2016, 06:40 PM #73
Being from Mass, where booze of any kind can't be sold in gas stations or grocery stores... I might suggest you find a state with similar regs.
Reduce the competition, ya know....
Good luck sir
-
10-05-2016, 06:58 PM #74
Oh yeah, I forgot about that place. I have friends that just bought a house a few blocks away.
I think it's a totally viable business, if done right, in the right location.
When there were only 10 breweries in Bend people would've (and probably did say) you'd be crazy to open the 11th. Now there are over 20.
When the third brewery in Bellingham was in the construction stage, people thought that this town was too small to support another brewery. Three years later there were 5, and the one I just mentioned opened a second location. Today we have 8, with 3 more on the way (one is Melvin's second location - stoked on that.)
There's a reason that once there's a gas station on one corner, competing gas stations attempt to get the other corners: competitive clustering. Businesses offering similar products or services located near one another will pull in more business as a whole than they would individually if spread out. Restaurants, bars, fashion, furniture, and hotels all follow this model. The various districts of Manhattan illustrate this pretty well.
So I don't buy the idea that drinking is "played out" or past its peak.
-
10-05-2016, 07:28 PM #75
Bookmarks