Bemidji's two municipal liquor stores recently completed improvements.

Totaling approximately $30,000, the city invested the funds to "spruce up" and freshen the two stores.

Both were started to look a bit worn out, said Ron Eischens, who as the city's finance director oversees the operations of the liquor stores.

"We've had a very positive response," he said of customers' reactions.

The city's north store, Discount Liquors, is more than 30 years old while the south store, Lakeview Liquor, is about 15 years old.

Both stores received new paint, new countertops and general maintenance repairs.

The south store got new flooring, updated lighting and new automatic doors.

Possibly the most visible change was the upgrade in flooring. Before there was one big piece of green linoleum flooring. Now the floor has rubber tile in a warm brown shade.

"(The old floor) was showing some wear and tear from the traffic," said Kevin Fenner, the senior retail clerk at Lakeview.

The new floor, too, offers advantages for saving costs with maintenance. Fenner said the old flooring required a twice-a-year stripping and waxing, while the new flooring just requires regular mopping.

On the exterior, the south store used to have a long flower box that required regular maintenance. Perennial flowers never seemed to work there, so each year annuals were planted. Now, that flower box has been removed.

"We took that flowerbox out and put in landscaping blocks," Eischens said. "It looks fresh."

Customers have responded well to the changes, Fenner said.

"They think it's a great improvement," he said. "It has brightened it up quite a bit in here."

The north store, too, underwent some changes. The most visible there, perhaps, is the complete reset of products.

That process included the redesign of product placement, making more facings available of popular items and, hopefully, making it easier for customers to find specific products.

"I think it's more shopper-friendly," said Don Baumgartner, the senior retail clerk at Discount Liquor.

Additionally, in the wine room, all the old carpet was removed and replaced with tile flooring.

The city started to sell liquor in the 1930s to both control its sale and benefit from the income.

Liquor store proceeds go into the city's general fund as a way to keep the tax levy down.

Eischens said the benefit on the tax levy is 7 percent, meaning that if there were not liquor store proceeds, the levy would need to increase by 7 percent to generate the same amount of revenue.