Transcript

[00:00:00] Brian Moura: Welcome to Boozy Banter with Lucky's Wine and More podcast, where we talk about what is happening within the liquor industry. I'm Brian Moura. Your hosts here with my co-host David Everson.

[00:00:35] David Everson: Hey everybody. How are you doing today?

[00:00:36] Brian Moura: Since this is our first podcast, let's get you a little background on Lucky's, myself, and David, before we began our conversation.

[00:00:45] I'm the general manager of Lucky's Wine and More, and David is one of our store managers. Lucky's has been around for a little over 10 years with the first store that opened up in Lakeland, Minnesota. We opened two more locations in Hudson since then one-off exit two [00:01:00] in the other off exit four, exit four is where you can find David.

[00:01:03] I have been in the liquor industry for coming up on 21 years. Managing a few different liquor stores in the area. David, give us a little bit of background about yourself.

[00:01:12] David Everson: So I started working with Lucky's three years ago now. Picked up the job when I was going to college. Really liked the industry, love the people it's a fantastic industry.

[00:01:21] So I just stuck with it and kept going. It was a fun progression to get to learn more about it. There's so much to unpack here. That's kind of what I'm hoping to do in this podcast how to be able to share. The ins and outs of what it's like to be in an industry that's so diverse and it's changes, constant

[00:01:36] Brian Moura: Changes daily.

[00:01:37] David Everson: How many times did we rearrange the shelf a week? Yeah. I mean, it's just new products and there's new trends and just hoping to kinda show of showcase some of that stuff and introduce you guys to some fun new products that we're really excited about. And yeah.

[00:01:49] Brian Moura: Yeah. The whole idea behind this podcast was basically to have a conversation about what is happening in our industry.

[00:01:55] David Everson: Things we can get into deeper conversations about. It's a fun [00:02:00] industry and ever so changing. So let's just dive into our first topic, current trends. This is something that we've seen a build for the last few years, but what's current.

[00:02:11] This is a really interesting topic just because the people who are making these decisions on these products coming out are so far up the food chain.

[00:02:19] You know, there's this idea that so many bring say to a big corporation like Anheuser-Busch and says, you know, this is going to be the next big thing. Or they are going to do it. But I think what's super interesting is they don't know until it hits the market how they're going to react to you. Because I think the market is what determines what becomes a trend.

[00:02:34] The reaction to seltzers when they were first released was such a groundbreaking thing because it gave people who wanted a lower-calorie beverage, something that was an accessible, fairly inexpensive, and nice thing to drink.

[00:02:47] Brian Moura: If you look over the past 10 years, you see things like Dr. Your father's copier and that soda category emerged before that it was Mike's hard lemonade.

[00:02:56] That's kind of like pre-made cocktails categories [00:03:00] started off, and then it's evolved into products like high noon, cutwater, other things, and ranch, water seltzers,

[00:03:07] David Everson: BRAF, premixed, ready to drink? Coffee. I mean, they are just exploded. I mean, we have two sections, I think in each of our stores just to contain the amount of product that's being introduced in the release.

[00:03:18] I mean, they're doing really good things. I mean, what they're able to do and with these products, I think has I've even seen a change over the last year. I mean, the quality, the way that they're able to introduce new flavors and really find

[00:03:30] Brian Moura: and keep them more natural.

[00:03:32] David Everson: Yeah, that is, I mean, that's huge. I mean that with being the health graze, that there is, and making them natural, sustainable, but also.

[00:03:39] Still really good to drink, I think is huge.

[00:03:42] Brian Moura: Yes. Moving on to like tequila and tequila-based drinks. Pre-made cocktails. As we're seeing tequila, branch water, things like that, that are just taken off with the can. I see that written my CNBC report here says tequila and mezcal are the second [00:04:00] Fest strong category in 2021.

[00:04:02] According to the adult spirits council. What we've seen in our industry, is that tequila is hard to keep in stock. It's going to possibly overtake vodka as the favorite liquor.

[00:04:13] David Everson: We've seen an increase in the number of tequila products out there to kill base craft cocktails, which I think is really an interesting thing because I think everybody associated tequila with a bad hangover.

[00:04:25] So I think it's been a nice turn because I really do think that it is such a nice thing to drink, but everybody associates it with a bad thing until recently, because I think that they started to understand that there's other stuff out there besides Jose Cuervo or whatever, the one with the warm and it is, everybody's got a bad college memory of drinking tequila too much and bad margaritas.

[00:04:45] But when you really dig into it, you have beautiful brands out there that are doing incredible things.

[00:04:49] Brian Moura: And they're delicious. Look at craft cocktails and how much advance over the last 10, 15 years, tequila took a lot of those and make fancy drinks. We're just [00:05:00] seeing the style drinks up here, more at bars and restaurants.

[00:05:04] And that's what the consumer's looking for.

[00:05:05] David Everson: Yep. Favorite tequila-based cocktail

[00:05:07] Brian Moura: Tequila-based cocktail. I was drinking a couple of weeks ago, margarita with the Algoma. Too many of those can be dangerous, but those are delicious. Tara mano, rocks. Tequila is amazing. We have several employees who like standby Tara mana or others out there too, that our employees really enjoy.

[00:05:27] David Everson: Yeah.

[00:05:27] When you're looking at tequilas, there are a lot of brands out there that you can find that perfect crossroad of good juice, but also like a great price. And one of those I'd like to highlight is as well. And that's what I've been using. That's what I use in all of my tequila-based drinks. All of that sits at home all the time.

[00:05:43] And I think that shows because we can't keep it on the shelves. I mean, we fight over cases when it comes in from our distributor. And I think that that's that perfect one where it, it, it has such great flavor. Doesn't leave you with that nasty hangover. And it really does make a fantastic cocktail.
[00:05:58] Brian Moura: We just got phone calls right [00:06:00] before.

[00:06:01] Saying that they got some men, so we've stopped off as much as we could. And so hopefully that will stay around long enough and have enough shipment. But my favorite one is the nail. You have had it, try it and hear it on the rocks. It's delicious. Yeah.

[00:06:14] David Everson: We, uh, made at home a almond granite's margarita where you use pomegranate juice in line and squonk tequila.

[00:06:22] And I got to say it's really tasty.

[00:06:25] Brian Moura: Different flavor margaritas. Another thing that's taken off and he said, pomegranate, pretty fruits. You look at it like grapefruits. There was another one that just came out. I can't remember the name. Dragon butterfly, butterfly Drake. Oh yeah. They have a prickly pear and they have a grapefruit. Both of those are delicious.

[00:06:46] David Everson: It's interesting that you bring it up because you know, you walked down the aisle of vodka, and what is half of flavored? And so it was only natural. It was only a natural progression to take tequila and make it flavored tequila because then you open up even [00:07:00] more options.

[00:07:00] And I think we're starting to see that that progression is starting to happen where the flavored tequilas because it's becoming a more popular spirit. I think if it wasn't becoming as popular as it was people wouldn't be doing these experiments to keep their brands changing and evolving, you know, they would just stick to their normal three levels.

[00:07:16] Brian Moura: It's making our job harder because not only people are still buying flavored vodka.

[00:07:20] Now they're coming out with different tequilas and it's just taken up a lot of shelf space. How do you cater to all of these new products that we're getting then? You know, obviously, you have to close out the dogs, but there are just so many new flavors in every category that we're seeing.

[00:07:35] David Everson: Yeah, honestly crazy. And that's one of the reasons I really liked starting to get into the management role at the store was because, you know, you got to make those decisions and, you know, we've talked about it, how liquor stores can build brands.

[00:07:47] Brian Moura: Absolutely.

[00:07:48] David Everson: You can have a product that you stand by and really like, and you can bring it from a brand that maybe some people have heard on to a huge staple in your area. And it went once it catches fire there, it's only a matter of [00:08:00] time before that fire spreads.

[00:08:01] Brian Moura: You look at S belong. For example, in the Hudson syncretic valley area, I believe of our in-town, started drinking it, and then it was on the circle goes a list and I ordered everything for him and it's old, it's sold through and I asked for some more and they came through and brought it back in, but it was one of those that the ones that were fives, where could it be disappeared in the area?

[00:08:22] David Everson: Now it's huge. As we said, we were fighting over cases. I think that's really cool, but it is, it's a battle you got to pick and choose kind of what you're going to stand behind and really push, you know, cause your staff is a huge resource and then, you know what, you're able to kind of do it yourself to present a product to the public.

[00:08:40] And that's why there's like the current trends as much as we can. And you see those trends happening just kind of naturally, I think it also a lot of those current trends like I said, come from the market and kind of like what the people in the industry are liking currently.

[00:08:53] Brian Moura: They can look at if there are some mixologists that decide to whip up these drinks, whether they're using tequila or vodka and [00:09:00] people haven't been at a restaurant, I'm sure you've seen it.

[00:09:02] Customers come in and be like, I had this drink and I want to buy everything. In this, for this drink and this tequila, it's a cordial, it's a mixer. That's what we do at Lucky's. As we bring in these products and mixers and all this for the customer. So they can have these craft cocktails at home and pay $12 a drink.

[00:09:20] David Everson: We love getting customers in there. You know, they have an item that they really liked. Cause sometimes it introduces us to a whole new brand or anything like that, where it's like, oh wow, this is actually a really good product. How have you not heard about this? And I think part of that's because our sales reps are so locked down with all these new products that keep coming out and it's, you know, you have this incentive to do this push for this product and you know, sometimes some things can get lost.

[00:09:44] A ton of people within the industry, all kinds of working together. I think that's what makes the strongest industry as a whole.

[00:09:50] Brian Moura: And I think keeping up on current trends as we do, it helps us, not only helps us but helps the consumer and our distributors to know what is trending, [00:10:00] right. Something to move on to dry January non-alcoholic drinks.

[00:10:05] Whew. Then taken off. If you look at some current stats, dry January beer sales were down according to Shanken News Daily, each percent.

[00:10:16] David Everson: And I mean, that's a big number when you're looking at how big the beer industry is.

[00:10:19] Brian Moura: And non-alcoholic beer. Then this is just for January, none of all of the year is 14.8% for the month of January from over the four-year trends, non-alcoholic wines up 24.4%.

[00:10:32] And non-alcoholic spirits of 69.2%. So like, again, this is from Shanken News Daily, how you subscribed to their daily newsletter. If you are in the industry and want to hear about daily updates, subscribe to Shanken News Daily.

[00:10:46] One thing for me that I really thought about and embraced is the non-alcoholic spirits and beer wine because we are seeing people enjoy craft beers.

[00:10:58] That's what I'm drinking right now. It's [00:11:00] an athletic upside down, upside down over now.

[00:11:03] David Everson: I think what's helping drive some of that non-alcoholic is that there are choices. I mean, when I was growing up, there was like, you knew of two non-alcoholic beers, bullshit. I mean, that was St. Pauli Girl. Do you know what I mean? Like there weren't many options to give people, so it was like they weren't going to dive into that in a category.

[00:11:21] Cause it was like, I don't want to drink St. Pauli Girl. Not that St. Pauli Girl is a bad product. Now there's a huge push for the craft. Which I think is helping drive those sales because it gives people an option.

[00:11:31] Brian Moura: And it tastes good. Like it tastes like a beer like you're drinking the golden now. I mean, we've had customers come in and be like, do you have athletic or Lagunitas.

[00:11:40] David Everson: They have a couple, they've got an IPA and even their hopper pressure, which is our hoppy water, coffee, sparkling water. We sell funds of that. It's not a beer necessarily, but it's sort of seltzer esk. But I think it gives people just enough of that. Because drinking is such a social thing and to be able to walk into a bar and they actually have options for you and you can sit [00:12:00] there and drink and that is enjoyable. That's going to improve how you enjoy that social.

[00:12:04] Brian Moura: Yeah. You can go to many bars and restaurants, like for example, downtown Hudson, San Pedro's has an amazing cocktail list.

[00:12:13] David Everson: Cool. I didn't even know that

[00:12:14] Brian Moura: I've had a Blueberry Mohito and it tastes just like their regular Blueberry Mohito for those who don't drink there's options out there.

[00:12:20] David Everson: Yeah. Well that's, I didn't know that they were doing that, but that's cool. And I'm sure it's with the help of Monday.

[00:12:25] Brian Moura: Monday. Yeah. Monday gym.

[00:12:26] David Everson: They were a NA spirit company.

[00:12:29] Brian Moura: Kind of one of the first ones that came out with this in a gym.

[00:12:32] It had the burning light, the gym had the botanicals. I have a bottle at home that I was drinking on. You mix that with tonic and he couldn't tell the difference.

[00:12:42] David Everson: So I think that's really cool. I'm happy to see that that trend is taking off because it gives people an option. You know, you don't ever want to feel pressured into doing something. And if you don't drink, you know, sometimes you can feel it, that social time is being taken away from you. Whereas now that you have that ability and we have seen a huge spike in it, even in the [00:13:00] past year, without dry January, we are in a section that has increased, I would say tenfold.

[00:13:06] Brian Moura: Any beer for sure. Spirits are still coming. I know Seedlip they have they're in our markets. There are a few other ones that we're slowly bringing new, but there are options now for those who want a craft cocktail non-alcoholic or a mocktail. And so if you ever stopped in our stores, and want to hear or see our options as one of our clerks, they happy to show you.

[00:13:30] Our next item is 'What's In Your Glass?'

[00:13:33] So this feature is a podcast talking about what we're drinking or what we drank. New exciting. I think for me, it's Hendrick's neptunia gin. I just tried that this week and it's absolutely amazing.

[00:13:49] David Everson: They're always limited seasonal releases. It's always been really good. Hendrick's has a brand I think is doing really good.

[00:13:56] Brian Moura: Love Hendrick's. Now they're coming out with these seasonal [00:14:00] jims, I think it's adding to the brand. We sold out the Lunar, which was the last seasonal. Now the Neptune, another amazing one. Drink it with tonic, drink it on the rocks. It's very versatile, obviously joy responsibly.

[00:14:13] David Everson: I like a company that is always trying to experiment. That shows that they really are.

[00:14:18] They're trying to keep the industry evolving and something like a seasonal release that they do that always challenges them to help us feel exciting. But I think it's also new and exciting for the customer and that's fine. Yeah. You like their base product now let's see what they can do when you're taking a little bit more time and focusing on a new product that's going to hit.

[00:14:37] I think I just, I really like brands that do that.

[00:14:39] Brian Moura: Absolutely. It's branching out.

[00:14:41] David Everson: It's taking a risk. Cause I mean, this isn't, they're not putting a couple of dollars into making these products to tens of thousands, to millions of dollars in product launching, launching testing, you know, there's marketing, you've got to do packaging and keep in mind it, I mean, it's huge to take like that big of a risk.

[00:14:57] So it's encouraging to see a company take [00:15:00] that risk.

[00:15:00] Brian Moura: Yes, I think. More and more companies like, especially smaller ones, take 45th, not to nephew off this topic of what's your class, but take 45th and how they're coming out with these line extensions, you know, they have their regular bourbon, the wheat Berman arriver then there, we have a woman at release right now, their maple, and

[00:15:19] David Everson: last time it was cognac.

[00:15:22] Yeah, they're putting something in a barrel and they're going to let it sit there for six months to a year and it could be terrible. And that's a huge loss for them. They could have sold that product as it is, and it would sell it and even move the negative money off of it. But no, they're going to try and use an experiment.

[00:15:35] See how it goes. And you don't know.

[00:15:38] Brian Moura: That's the risk.

[00:15:39] All right, David. What's in your glass?

[00:15:41] David Everson: I just want to highlight a brand recently, my girlfriend, Ashley, and I have really been enjoying the hell of a few different lineups. It's a brand that's been around for a little bit, but I've just brought it in to the store and I've really been enjoying it.

[00:15:51] It's one of our favorite brands would be the California Winery's Decoy. They have a wide variety. They inform us of all the [00:16:00] varietals of your typical wines, Cabernet, blend, Savio, unblock. This slowly we've been good.

[00:16:06] Brian Moura: And they came out with their corn seltzers.

[00:16:09] David Everson: Oh, they did? They're there. Yes. Yeah.

[00:16:11] So, I mean, even they're trying to keep up with some current trends, even as it, you know, huge winery. A lot of our clientele to Decoy and they are absolutely loving it. You know, we are selling it at the time. I really like it. I think it's a very, well-rounded very balanced. I love their Cabernet. And then we just did, there has a limited release, which is exclusively Napa Valley grapes.

[00:16:31] So they're just bringing that region from a blend to a certain region, which was just going to include it a little bit more. For all over it and for the quality, I really do think it has a good price point. And I've had every one of their varieties. I've been absolutely blown away.

[00:16:43] Brian Moura: Price point around what, 24,

[00:16:44] David Everson: 24 for their regular, just Decoy, 26, I think for their limited.

[00:16:50] So really not even that much of an increase for what I would say is a huge uptick in quality and, and decoy that you're talking about them in the state fair. I call it Duckhorn, but [00:17:00] Duckhorn corners there can't be step down. And then I also have one called a paradox. So there are three different ones than the different tiers of their ones that kind of that vary with.

[00:17:10] I think the region that comes from, and then with that comes price point. So I would encourage you to head out there and come grab a bottle. Boy, I highly recommend it. If you need help, find it on the shelves, but come find me and I'll introduce you.

[00:17:22] Brian Moura: Again, this is Brian and David. You'll find out that the Hudson location off of exit Ford, you'll find me mostly at exit two location down the road from target and Hudson.

[00:17:32] And that was our podcast. So thanks for listening to this week's episode of boozy banter. With point we hope. We've be sure to subscribe so that we can join you again. And if you appreciate the show, please jump over to iTunes and Spotify and give us a rating for more info and notes from this week's show.

[00:17:48] Check us out at luckyswineandmore.com. Thanks for listening. Cheers.

[00:17:51] David Everson: Cheers.[00:18:00]