Exterior view of Hazel's (left), and
signage describing the Women's
Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs),
who served during WWII, which
functions as Hazel's theme for
the store.
Creating a Store
Theme
T
heir choice: flyers who
served during World War II in the
Women's Airforce Service Pilots, better known
as WASPS. "We wanted some kind of theme for the
store," says Dean. "And along with the name Hazel,
which is an older sort of name, the idea was to create an
iconic brand for Boulder."
The idea, devised by co-founder of the enterprise,
real estate attorney Bruce Dierking, was to employ aviation imagery and graphics, and build local awareness of
the store around something more than only a great
selection of beverage alcohol; instead, they wanted to
establish a pleasant and repeatable shopping experience
in a unique environment.
So Hazel the flyer was born.
Suspended from the ceiling inside the
store is a half-size model of a F4U
Corsair plane. Images gathered from
historic records of the WASP aviatrixes
line the walls, and the graphics used on
the store's website and ads features Hazel
herself. A handful of the surviving
WASPS living in Colorado have been
hosted at the store as well.
The point is to make a visceral connection with
shoppers, says Dean. "If you can give people a pleasant
shopping experience, they'll spend more time in your
store looking around. And if you give them the items
that they want to buy at a price they are willing pay, you
should be quite successful. And so far we have."
Boulder is slightly unusual compared to Colorado
overall. The University of Colorado provides a flood
of potential legal drinking age customers as well as
32 • Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • May/June 2013
