Featuring more than 1,000 SKUs of beer, Argonaut’s fastest- growing segment is craft beer.
In fact Vaughn thinks that the new building is one of the reasons that 2010, with more than 900,000 cash register transactions, was the store’s best ever, although he adds, “I’d probably be up even more in a great econ- omy, so it’s hard to benchmark it.” He says it’s no secret that people gravitate toward what’s new and different rather than what’s old and stale. The giant 15-ft. tall, light-up champagne bottle on the corner of the store stresses the new. As he watches customers in the store, Vaughn says it often becomes obvious that customers who stopped in to pick up a 12-pack of beer or a bottle of wine, for example, have been captivated by the breadth of selection and end up spending not only more time in the store checking out the stock, but often spending more than may have been their original intent.
Maintaining Independence U
nlike the majority of states, Colorado does not allow chains to sell beverage alcohol. Each business entity can hold only one liquor license. So supermarket chains such as Safeway or other large retailers like Target, can sell spirits, wine and beer, but only in one single store within the state. Supermarkets can only sell beer with a 3.2% alcohol content. A battle over that section of the law has been ongoing between the super- market industry and independent retailers, both large (like Argonaut and Applejack) and small. In fact, on the day that Vaughn spoke with Beverage Dynamics, he had just finished a meeting with a lobbyist regarding the pos- sibility of a bill being introduced in the new legislative session to allow chain retailing.
“Every year for the last four, the grocery lobby has come forth with leg- islation trying to change those laws,” noted Vaughn. “Lucky for us we’ve defeated it every year, but we’re expecting to have to face those issues again.” Although the independents compete against each other in the market- place, they want to keep the playing field as level as possible and that means limiting the power of large corporate retailers. Toward that end, Vaughn says he supports several organizations. “There’s CLBA, which is Colorado Licensed Beverage Association, which is one group that represents a good number of liquor licensees here, on- and off-premise; and there’s a group called Coloradoans for Safety, which is a coalition of larger stores that are also helping to fight against that
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