News from Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association

Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association Newsletter

(November 18, 2012 - November 24, 2012)

Click Here

for the

As I See It...

Tools

Are You Giving Your Employees The Tools To Succeed?

The economy must be improving, for the first time in a long time, we lost six employees and none just because the boss is ornery, but rather that they were moving into a full time position or a promotional career move.

While we are very happy to see our former employees succeed, it means we have new employees with little experience at the busiest time of the year.

To accelerate the learning curve, we had to ask, are we giving our employees all the tools to succeed at every level?

Here are some of the training tools have and will continue to use to ensure we provide our staff the tools they need to successfully maximize sales at this peak time of the year:

1) We conduct employee meetings on a quarterly basis, but the holiday meeting we ensure that all of our employees know wine and food pairings, and how better to teach them than through demonstration. So we have a local deli provide some slices of ham, turkey, salads, meatballs and chocolate and cheesecake desserts and we demonstrate the proper wine pairings in order to educate our employees.

This year to change it up, we did the same training but paired the foods up with different craft beers.

Vendors are always willing to participate in these training events!

2) Provide educational and promotional materials. We provide shopping guide that our employees may use to assist the customers in their shopping selections. This flyer includes wine and food pairing, craft beer descriptions, bubbly and champagne definitions as well as serving recommendations.

If you don't have the ability to make this on your own, you can print wine and food pairing sheets off the Internet.

3) Lastly, mentor your employees and set expectations. Ask your employees what they would recommend, or if they have questions.

Five minutes explaining the simple basics while establishing your expectations for customer service can go a long way in not only ensuring your customers are satisfied, but that your employees can approach the customers confidently which is half the battle.

So provide the tools and empower your people on the sales floor this holiday season. The rewards will be increased sales and less stress for all!

Brenda Visnovec

Lakeville Liquor Manager

MMBA Director

New York Mills Reporting Strong Profits

Money

By: Connie Vandermay, EOT Focus

Mills Liquor (New York Mills) reported higher profits this year than last. October revenues pushed the liquor store's total earnings to $15,240 higher than last year at this same time.

Manager Kim Hoban said, "We are looking at a very good year this year, probably the very best year since I started (in 2008)."

Hoban told the council that the increase in revenue hasn't come without some extra work on the part of her and her staff.

Hoban said the trick is, "constantly promoting new products" and they, "took advantage of the competition."

The other thing Hoban said added to her success is "finding the products that this area enjoys... getting feedback from customers and bringing in what they like."

The liquor store has, "gotten some excellent prices on wine and liquor. It's a lot of work to put in new products all the time," Hogan said.

In a follow-up interview, City Clerk Darla Berry said the liquor store's profits cover a $54,000 city bond payment each year, after paying all of its own expenses.

Deer Hunting Boosts Wadena Liquor Sales

By Zach Kayser, Wadena Pioneer Journal

Some deer hunters may have lost out on getting a buck this year due to decreased populations, but they managed to get their hands on quite a bit of something else: beer.

Alcohol sales were up approximately $10,000 from last year's deer season, said Tim Booth, manager of Wadena Municipal Liquor. Booth said spikes in sales are normal around hunting season, but this one is the biggest he's seen since he started running the liquor store four years ago.

Booth especially saw sales spike during just the last three days of opening week. He said it would be interesting to look at all the licenses sold in 2011 versus 2012.

Booth added that, although beer and hunting are linked, the relationship between the two isn't that different from other social events.

"It's just like anything - they go on vacation. Heck, they're with their friends, who they probably only see once a year, and a lot of people have little hunting shacks where they sit around and just talk ... just a good getaway. Usually they're safe, they don't go to a bar and drive ... it's kind of a getaway from everything," he said.

The Wadena liquor store has begun stocking special products geared specifically for the season, and their strategy seems to be paying off.

For example, the store carried a brand of whisky with a camouflage-colored bottle during deer season. Normally, that brand of whisky has a more conventional kind of bottle during the rest of the year. Booth said the special kind of bottle sold more during the weeks surrounding deer season than the regular version of the bottle had during the all of the other months of the year combined.

However, the biggest hunting-themed seller this year was a new type of beer under the Deer Dummy brand from a brewery in Maple Lake, Minn. The beer's name: Doe Pee, which Booth said is both a cheeky reference to the pheromones hunters use to attract bucks and a pun on the word "dopey".

"We sold 21 cases of it this year," he said.

A Man with a Wooden Eye...