BY CHERYL URSIN
Generally, the opening festivities last all weekend, from free coffee and breakfast goodies before the ribbon- cutting ceremony, to tastings and demonstrations from both local and international wineries, breweries and distillers, free tastings of cheese and other snacks, and gift bags filled with items such as barware, mixers, snacks and bartending books, valued at over $50, for the first 500 customers.
W But BevMo! outdid itself when it opened its third
Washington State store, in Tukwila, just south of down- town Seattle, in September.
For that opening, BevMo! hosted its first-ever wed- ding. Local residents Dean Kittelson and Roni Brock were married on a stage in front of the store, complete with flowers and cake, with Alan Johnson, BevMo!'s CEO, officiating. Family, friends and over 500 BevMo! customers then toasted the happy couple.
hen BevMo!, a 124-store chain based in California, opens a new store, it goes all out.
Jim Root, BevMo!'s Washington district manager, in the chain's Tacoma store, which opened in July, soon after the new beverage alcohol laws took effect.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN McGOWAN
Johnson said, in a statement, "In the word BevMo!, the exclamation translates to celebration – the celebration of beverages. We love what we do and can't wait to offer Washingtonians the unique BevMo! experience for the first time."
NEWLY "OPEN" STATE
ashington State is a brand-new market for BevMo! and for other liquor retailers. On June 1st, the state switched from being a "control state" to an "open state." As a control state, the state government of Washington acted as the sole distributor and retailer of liquor in the state, running a warehouse operation and 331 state stores to do so. That has all changed. Private distributors now handle liquor, the state stores have been auctioned off to private retailers, and stores that are at least 10,000 square- feet in size, such as supermarkets, Costco and, now,
W 18 • Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • November/December 2012
