Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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store in one hour. If the order is over $500, BevMo! will deliver the order for free. And recently, BevMo! has launched a new service specifically for weddings, bevmoweddings.com. (See sidebar.) BevMo!, of course, is not the only retailer enter- ing the newly changed Washington market. The ballot initiative, 1183, that became the new law was nicknamed "the Costco law" by Washington State residents because that retailer was a major backer of it. "We have to give a lot of credit to Costco," said Schuler. "With the new law, it's the customer that's going to win in the end." BevMo!'s more than 1,400 beers range from major mainstream brands to imports to local craft brews; the store features a Growler Station where con- sumers can fill their own bottles with fresh micro- brewed beer. store is staffed with a sommelier who has completed at least level one of the process of becoming a master sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers. S TASTING BARS, GROWLER STATIONS tores are equipped with tasting bars for wine, and in Arizona and Washington, where the practice is legal, with growler stations, where customers can buy refill- able containers called growlers and fill them from a selection of microbrewed draft beers, allowing off- premise customers to buy beers that are not available in bottles, in quantities smaller than a keg. BevMo! offers three kinds of online ordering. Customers in any state where direct shipment is legal can buy from BevMo's website (bevmo.com). Customers in Arizona, California and Washington can call in an order, for example, for a party, and can pick up that order, which will be chilled, if necessary, at their local n addition to Costco, any retailer whose store is at least 10,000 square feet in size, such as a super- market or a grocery store, can apply to sell liquor as well as beer and wine. Meanwhile, the state did auction off its state stores and other alcohol licens- es for smaller liquor retailers. And at least one other large out-of-state chain has come to Washington. Total Wine & More, based in Potomac, MD, which bills itself as "America's Wine Superstore," known for its huge selection of wine, beer and spirits. It has more than 80 stores in 13 states and has opened Washington stores in Belluvue and Tukwila, with another to open soon in Spokane. Another major player in the market is the local Wine World & Spirits, based in Wallingford, WA. It opened its 23,000-square-foot store, to sell beer and wine, at the end of 2010, and since the law changed, has added spirits. Price has been a major concern in Washington. When it still operated its control system, Washington had some of the highest liquor prices in the country. When the state was the sole distributor and retailer of distilled spirits, its profits and its taxes on liquor (21% sales tax and a $3.77 per liter excise tax) went to the state budget. In an attempt to keep some of the revenue the state had grown to depend on, Initiative 1183 kept the state's liquor taxes the same – and added fees on the distributors (10%) and retailers (17%). According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, liquor prices increased an average of 17% since pri- vatization. Wine and beer remained the same. "Prices at the register, with the taxes added, have been a little higher than the average customer expected," admit- ted Schuler, "but all the retailers, us included, are focused on making the customer happy. That's what we always want." There was also definitely a learning curve for everyone once the law changed. "When the state, as the exclusive distributor of spirits, closed its doors, there were companies all trying to be distributors, at the same I 22 • Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • November/December 2012 THE WASHINGTON MARKET