StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/307773
StateWays Q www.stateways.com Q May/June 2014 12 service and to have the product you want at a fair price," he said. "With something like iMod, there is never a fi nish line. You have to continually adapt to the needs of the customer." Sound Business Principles A nderson, who has also been, since 2007, the director of the Idaho Lottery, spent the bulk of his career – 26 years – in broadcasting, including serving as vice president and general manager of the CBS television affi liates KBOI in Boise and KIDK in Idaho Falls. "My experience has been, not in government, but in private business, where the focus has to be on the customer," he said, "and now, as director of the liquor division and of the lottery, I am running entities that have consumers and revenues and expenses and profi ts. They are quasi-businesses that need to be run with sound business principles. With the lottery, I have salespeople and deal with advertising. With the liquor division, I have storefronts and store employees." And the core principle of running a successful business is treating the customer well. "And when I say 'customer,' I mean a pretty broad spectrum," said Anderson. "I mean both internal and external customers. I mean, not only our customers and our licensees, but also our suppliers and the landlords of our store locations and our vendors. Internally, I mean our sales associates and other employees. Everybody in the supply and the value-added chain. We need to called pods, for example, have eliminated the need for cardboard and case stackings in the stores. As store leases end, the ISLD looks for better locations. "Is there good parking? Does it have ease of egress, such as a stoplight? Is it near or adjacent to a grocery store to be convenient for customers? We put all those criteria in a big bucket and stir," said Anderson. The ISLD is also continually upgrading the look of its stores as opportunities arise, with fi nishes such as polished-concrete fl oors and more sophisticated lighting. A main target of all this upgrading: female customers. "When I arrived in 2010, I asked a simple question: Who is our customer?" said Anderson. A simple check – cashiers indicated whether the customers they served were male or female – showed that 73% of the customers in state stores were men and only 27% were women. For a product used by both genders, such as spirits, Anderson explained, that was not a good ratio. Plus, he pointed out, "Female customers tend to spend more time shopping, their baskets are bigger and they are more likely to buy premium and superpremium products." By focusing on the convenience, ease of shopping and look of their stores, the ISLD has been improving that ratio. "It might not be 50/50 yet," said Anderson, "but it's not defi nitely 73/27 anymore either." "Our goal is to have our stores continue to look and feel like a good-quality retailer, to provide knowledgeable, friendly, helpful From left, liquor store Clerk Lynn Ferguson, ISLD Director Jeff Anderson, and store manager Doug Alley, inside a newly modernized liquor store in Boise, ID. Our goal is to have our stores continue to look and feel like a good-quality retailer, to provide knowledgeable, friendly, helpful service and to have the product you want at a fair price." — Jeff Anderson " PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIXEL LIGHT CREATIVE GROUP