Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association Newsletter

(November 17, 2013 - November 23, 2013)

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MMBA Website

As I See It...

Greetings from Washington State!

I'm in Seattle this week to meet my new grandson.

The laws involving alcohol distribution in this state have gone through some majors changes in the past few years.

As in Minnesota, the system is far too complex to cover in a few paragraphs but some observations:

Grapes and hops have long been major crops here and wine and beer are considered agricultural products. I was informed by the Manager of the Puget Community Food Cooperative near my vacation rental that Diet Pepsi has no nutritional value and they will not stock it but beer and wine are food.

Grocery stores have long been licensed to sell wine and beer. The selection of wine in the grocery stores I have visited has been limited to those high volume, mass distributed labels that we all recognize. I had to search out a specialty wine shop to find something interesting.

Yesterday I visited a Costco and a BevMo store and was astounded by their liquor prices. Before 2012, liquor in this state was sold only in state controlled stores. According to the Washington State Liquor Control website, the change to private licensing has resulted in up to a 30% increase in retail prices. Certainly not working out well for the consumer!

On the first evening of my visit, we walked two blocks from my son's home to "show off" the new baby at the neighborhood gathering spot.

The Fremont Brewery plays host to the entire neighborhood.....young, old and numerous family pets. The brewery sells the majority of their brews through a licensed distribution system similar to ours. They also have an on sale license and sell growlers from their brewery site.

I was told that they do so not for financial reasons, but to be a good neighbor in this densely populated urban area. It was a fun family atmosphere and I witnessed few sales of growlers.

As we are seeing in Minnesota, the interest in and sales of bourbon are exploding here.....a BBQ restaurant had a whiskey list of 92 labels and 10 different flights!

And, most importantly, little Cormac Joseph (named to honor his Irish heritage and his father) is 8lbs 3oz of pure joy!!

Candice Woods

Liquor Hutch (Hutchinson)

Wine Club Success in Longville!!

The MMBA Office received the following note this week:

It was brought to my attention that people in town were looking for something to do on the week nights and that a wine club was mentioned once or twice.

So I asked Kate, our wine expert here in the store, if she would take on the major part of this project.

Last night was the first one and with barely any advertising we sold 137 bottles of wine at a 40% mark-up(50% if they didn't buy a case).

Nancy Raines
Longville Lakes Bottle Shop

How to Enjoy the Busy Holiday Season as a Manager

By Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

Choose your attitude - You can make it The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year or Dawn of the Dead. It all depends on what you focus on.

Know your limits - You can DO the work of two people, but you can't BE two people. Know when to say no.

Keep your crew up - Do something nice for your crew. Then buy a helium balloon and keep it in the backroom as a reminder that when it deflates, you have to do something nice for your crew again.

Accept your customers - There will be days you love all of them and days they are all flawed, but the fact is, they pay your wages.

Final Thought - When January hits, and your retail store is like a ghost town, you will long for the busy days when you missed lunch, when you jumped up and down because you blew your store goal away, and when you made someone else's holiday.

Enjoy the ride!

Internet Policy

Recently, a member, concerned about employees using the Internet, asked for a sample policy to address the situation.

Here is a good example from Brooklyn Center:

Information Technology Policy 3.10 Internet

The Internet is available to users for research, education, and communications directly related to the mission, charter, or work tasks of the City.

Users must follow copyright laws regarding protected commercial software or intellectual property.

Users of the Internet should minimize unnecessary network traffic that might interfere with the ability of others to make effective use of this shared network resource.

Use of the Internet through City computers may be revoked at any time for abusive conduct.

Users are responsible for adhering to City standards when browsing the Internet. Failure to adhere puts the City and the individual at risk for legal or financial liabilities, potential embarrassment and other consequences.

The City retains the right to use management software to monitor end user activity. This software may monitor and limit Internet activity in order to ensure the most efficient use of this valuable resource.

Before publishing to a publicly viewable web site, content must be approved by the designated department contact.

Keg Urinals

Pine City's Lara Smetana sent a picture she took of some interesting urinals.

The larger question is why she was in the Men's Room in the first place!@#$%^

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.

Future Dates to Remember!!