Boot camp was Feb. 24^th and 25^th at Breezy Point.

For those of you who missed it, you missed a great opportunity to intermix with other municipal employees and to exchange ideas in these trying economical times.

For those of you who came, I hope you found some stimulating information you carried back to your store and are now putting into operation.

The 2010 MMBA conference is May 15-18 at the Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria. Mark your calendars and we hope to see you there!

Recently I was approached by Kari Resch with a unique marketing idea. She contacts local businesses and contractors to advertise on her drink coasters.

I helped her with a list of locals I thought would advertise and we even took some names from ads on the cable TV channel.

She does all the contacting and if she can get enough advertisers from the area she will give you coasters "free" for one year.

She mixes all the advertisers so no one ad is featured alone but mixed with all the advertisers.  I think it will be fun for our area businesses and contractors to see their ads on our bar under the drinks.

Coasters are definably larger than business cards and not as easily lost.

Her coasters are large white squares and she has nice graphics and colors to catch the eye.

If you are interested you can contact Kari at Kari@funspotpromotions.com or call 218-851-4840.

Toni Buchite

50 Lakes Bar & Grill Manager

MMBA Director

 

Maybe it was the new venue, maybe it was the pre-Valentine jitters. Or maybe, it was just the idea of sampling a few new wines.

In any event, Farmington liquor store manager Randy Petrofske was thrilled and a little surprised by the large turnout that showed up at the Feb. 9 wine tasting event at the Farmington American Legion.

Hosted by Farmington Liquors, the event featured two of the liquor store's vendors. It was open to members of the store's wine club, but an invitation was extended to the community, as well.

The vendors had opportunity to share their knowledge about the various wines, talk about the subtle nuances that the different types had. The audience, in turn, got to sample as many of the wines as they wanted.

But maybe the best thing, from Petrofske's perspective, was the visibility the event offered. It was a chance for him to promote the wine club, as well as share a little bit of information about the Farmington liquor stores.

The wine club gives its members a chance to sample and learn about the wines. There is an annual membership fee of $25 for singles or $30 per couple. That fee includes a 15 percent discount on all wine and champagne purchases, except those items on sale, and additional discounts at wine tasting events. Members also receive invitations to upcoming wine tasting events.

Anyone who is interested in joining the wine club may do so at either of the Farmington Liquor Stores.

Click Here to See Video of the Tasting 

 

The City of Columbia Heights is looking for two part-time liquor store supervisors.

 

This position performs administrative and supervisory retail sales work in serving customers of the municipal off-sale liquor facilities.  Work involves responsibility for supervising part-time retail clerks, cashiering, stocking, merchandising, and performing a variety of duties pertaining to retail off-sale liquor store operations. Work is performed under the supervision of the Liquor Operations Manager or Assistant Liquor Operations Managers, and is reviewed through records and observation. 

 

 

 By barbusinessowners.com

1. Identify a goal

Ask yourself why you are running a promotion. Is it to bring in more customers on a slow night? Increase sales for a particular beverage? Attract new customers? Get current customers to come in early or stay later?

Whatever the reason, keep it in mind while you design your promotion so you don't get off track.

Determine your goals before planning any promotion and keep them in mind as you plan each of the parts. When you have a decision to make, refer back to your goals to see which course of action will bring you closer to your desired outcome.


2. Let it ride

One of the most common mistakes that lots of bar managers make is cutting promotions short. When you change promotions too quickly you'll disappoint customers who want to participate in the promotion but find out that it was only a one week event. You'll also spend more money advertising and creating new promotional items.

Allow your promotions to gain traction, with two to three months to run. This gives enough time for people to hear about the promotion through advertising or word of mouth. It also gives you enough time to measure the success of the promotion and determine if it's worth doing again in the future.

Don't advertise an ending date for your promotion. That way if the promo does well you can keep it going as a weekly event and if it's not a winner you can end it.


3. Keep the party going

If you have television or music playing in your bar all of the time, don't turn them off when you stage your promotions. To keep energy levels at a maximum (and to keep your regulars happy) continue the entertainment even when prizes are announced.

When there's a prize giveaway or contest, you can turn the volume down or change the lighting for emphasis. Keep the party going in order to keep the atmosphere fun and exciting.


4. Follow recent trends

Featuring the "next big thing" as part of your promotion is one way to make your event instantly more popular. Whether it's a hot new drink (pomegranate martini anyone?), newly popular band or hard to get prize, you can use a popular something to make your promotion more exciting. Simply by aligning your bar with a trendy item, your bar can share in its popularity.

Keep informed of new trends and technology and figure out ways of bringing new trends into your bar promotions. Not only will it help your promotions to be popular and successful, but using this as a consistent practice gives your bar a hot and trendy image in long run.


5. Make them wait

When you're running a giveaway or contest promotion, don't host the contest or announce the prize winner until later on in the evening. Ideally require the winner to be present when the winners are announced in order to win.

If you run the contest or announce the prize winner within an hour of opening, you'll lose your captive (drink buying) audience. Keep your guests in your bar later while they wait for the promotion finale.

Maintain the energy all night with drink specials and entertainment for your customers.


6. Partner with others

The best way to cut your promotion costs and build friendly relationships with other businesses is to partner with merchants in your promotions. This way you can divide the cost of advertising and putting on the promotion as well as get giveaway prizes for minimal (or no) cost.

Reach out to neighbor businesses and ask for their support in the form of prizes for your promotion. If a business won't provide the prize for free, ask to split the cost of the prize. Find ways to make the partnership mutually beneficial for your sponsors. You can offer them advertising or gift certificates in exchange for prizes.

It also helps if you know that your demographics are similar to the other business - that way you are giving them an opportunity to advertise directly to their target market with your promotion.


7. Build anticipation

You can build anticipation for your events and promote word of mouth advertising by announcing your promotions in advance. Let customers know about upcoming promotions with announcements, promotional calendars, and through your staff.

Décor themed with your promotion and giving away themed promotional items in advance will build excitement for your upcoming event. Customers will notice the changes and make plans to come back and see what all the fuss is about.


8. Follow the 4 part system

Though promotions can range widely in theme and practice, most successful promotions include four parts: drink specials for everyone, a grand prize giveaway, a nightly entertainment event, and nightly giveaways.

For example, a beach themed promotion would include half priced tropical drinks, a grand prize beach vacation giveaway, a bikini contest on Saturdays and a Jimmy Buffett cover band on weekdays, and a nightly prize of a free indoor tanning package and $50 gift certificate to a surf clothing store.

The four part system works because each of the four parts appeal to different customers and makes your promotion complete.


9. Do something for everyone

Make sure every one of your customers can be involved in the promotion; being left out of something is not fun and doesn't keep your customer engaged. Most contest promotions only have a small group of contestants. Try to involve everyone so that all of your guests have a good time.

Think of ways to make the promotion fun for every customer. Run drink specials or lottery-type prize drawings that everyone can participate in. If you're running a contest, let your other customers vote on the winner.


10. Budget for success

Just like almost anything else that brings new customers into your bar, promotions cost money and you must budget for them. Don't sell your promotions short by not budgeting enough money to do them right.

If you don't have a pre-determined promotion budget, estimate how many customers your promotion will likely bring into your bar based on past promotions.

Multiply that number by your average guest check and you'll have a rough number of how much money will be gained by doing a promotion. This can be the basis for your promotional budget.

Be sure to design a budget for your promotion that will allow you to run it for the fully specified time frame. While your promotions are successes if they can pay for themselves, good promotions should make up the cost of the promotion times three.

While not every promotion you run will be a hit, there are lots of ways to make your promotions a success. Follow these rules and you'll be on the fast track to popular and profitable bar promotions.

 

 

Did you know the way a menu is designed can impact not only what a customer purchases, but how much they pay - and the amount of profit a restaurant makes?

 

Click below to hear from author William Poundstone.

 

Click Here to See Video   

by Tina Snell
Morrison County Record

The city transferred $15,000 from the natural gas utility fund, $15,000 from the electric and garbage utility fund and $30,000 from the liquor fund to the general fund to offset its losses.

The liquor store fund's gross profit increased by 11.7 percent to $221,729. After operating expenses and depreciation, the net profit was $40,303, a 170 percent increase over 2008.

 

 

340A.312 JOINT PURCHASES; VOLUME PRICES.

 

Subdivision 1.Joint purchases.

 

The joint purchase by two or more licensed retailers of up to 300, 1.75 liter or smaller, bottles of distilled spirits or wine for resale to the public is lawful.

Off-premise wine sales data increased 5.1 percent from the same period last year in the four weeks ending February 6 according to The Nielsen Company-tracked data.

In the 13 weeks ending February 6, sales were up 3.5 percent.

Total wine sales grew in all price points in the 4 weeks ending February 6, with the largest growth in the $9 to $11.99 price segment, which increased 9.4 percent.

Wines in the $3 to $5.99 and $12 to $14.99 price segments also showed strong growth.

In the 4 weeks ending February 6, wines retailing for $3 to $5.99 increased in sales 7.6 percent and $12 to $14.99 increased 6.4 percent.

Sales in the over $20 price point, which were declining earlier in the year, grew 5.4 percent in the 4 weeks ending February 6.

 

A man walks into a bar with a roll of tarmac under his arm and says: "Pint please, and one for the road." 

Margaret Thatcher