As we come upon the Memorial Day Holiday it is always important to acknowledge those who have served our country and sacrificed for all of us to make what we have better and safer.

To all of you out there who have served, I thank you for your dedication to our great country.

I know what I am about to say does not come close to matching in any way what our brave men and women have done for us and I do not want to take anything away from them on this very important holiday, but there is a parallel I want to share.

I would like to thank Candice Woods and Michael Friesen, who both finished many years of service as MMBA board members, for their dedication to the association and its members.

Candice has been involved with MMBA since before 2000 when I first became involved.

She is a past president and held other official positions throughout her many years serving.

She has testified in front of legislative committees, discussed Wine in Grocery on the television program Almanac and participated in other forums throughout her years.

She has always made herself available to members, the press and others she felt she could help educate or enlighten on the many issues that have faced us over the years.

As a board member, I will miss her knowledge, insight, calmness and most of all her laughter and smile.

Candice is one of the most knowledgeable retailers I know and I have learned so much from her over the years, as I am sure others can attest to that.

I can truly call her one of my best friends in this industry.

Even though she is no longer on the board of directors, she will still be involved when needed and we all can be thankful for that.

I first met Michael at Breezy Point when we held our annual conference there many moons ago.

Michael showed a great interest to learn from others to make himself a better manager and liquor operator.

Michael joined the board during the fight for Wine in Grocery at its peak.
 
Michael would spend many days traveling around the state each year visiting with MMBA member cities to see how they were doing and asking if he could help in any way.

I do not think Michael ever missed coming to the capital all these years for Legislative Day, nor did he ever miss coming to other MMBA meetings.

He was always ready to dig in and help and gave way more than he ever got in return.

Michael recently served as vice president of MMBA and did an outstanding job.

I am lucky to call him a friend and will miss his presence on the board and all his years of experience dealing with the many issues facing our industry.

While serving on the MMBA board does not even remotely come close to serving your country, the service and dedication that Candice and Michael have shown representing MMBA cannot go without notice.

THANK YOU!

To our three new board members; Nanette Serbus, Nancy Raines and Chris Arnold, you have some big shoes to fill, but we know you are all capable of stepping up and helping to carry the torch that Candice and Michael did for many years.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Holiday!!

Steve Grausam
Edina Liquor

The Schmitz-Maki Arena in Farmington will get a new $15,271 sound system.

• Automatic adjusting: The rule provides a mechanism to raise the salary threshold every three years (the proposed rule had provided for annual adjusting.) The first update will take effect January 1, 2020.

• Bonuses: For the first time, bonuses, incentive payments, and commissions may be counted toward the salary threshold, but only if they (a) are non-discretionary, (b) are paid at least quarterly, and (c) fulfill no more than 10% of the salary threshold ($4,747.60).

• Duties test: While there was some concern that the DOL would restrict the type of work that would qualify for exempt status, the DOL elected to leave the duties test alone. Therefore, an employee who performs executive, administrative, or professional work that has traditionally met the test for exemption will continue to be exempt as long as he/she meets the new salary threshold and is paid on a salary basis.

• Highly compensated employees: The salary threshold for highly compensated employees will raise from $100,000 to $134,004. This little-used rule provides a shortcut to the duties test, but as a practical matter, nearly any employee paid at this level already meets the standard test for exempt status.

For more information regarding the changes in the overtime
regulations, Click Here

By MMBA Conference Presenter, Tom Shay

Experiences of an evening out as well as a couple of groups that I worked with recently provide my thoughts for your business this month.

A service ticket; prescription; a glass of wine. They came from an auto care/repair center, a pharmacy and a local business called, "Try Wine".

The experience with all three was that these businesses have your personal information when you do business with them.

The Try Wine business sells you a prepaid card that you use to try samples of wine with the expectation you continue to try various wines and perhaps buy a bottle or two.

The experience with the auto care/repair center is a simple oil, lube, filter change and an inspection for possible problems.

Like other businesses, they put a sticker in the window with numbers that indicate when you should return for additional service.

The pharmacy fills a prescription that needs to be refilled monthly; at best, the pharmacy will offer an automatic refill.

With the wine shop if you start with $50 on the card and only use $20, you leave with their having $30 of yours.

The problem with each is there has been no re-connection from the business.

The auto center uses the same window sticker that all their competition does; the pharmacy offers the same refill service that others offer; the wine shop does nothing to get the customer to return.

All three do what most other businesses do; that, my friends, is why they are just common.

What does your business do differently?

The bottom line is that all three businesses could do something that would help them keep their existing customers in a closer relationship.

Otherwise, they can settle for competing with other businesses based on price.