Your Liquor Store Has a List. Are You On It?

TOP SHELF

The Guy Behind the Counter Is Keeping Score

Walk into any liquor store on a Saturday morning and you can write the first line yourself.

"Got any Blanton's?"

"Any Eagle Rare today?"

"Y'all holding anything in the back?"

The bottles change. The script never does.

So this week we turned the mic around.

Read enough store-worker threads and the same complaints show up again and again. Here's what the people behind the counter wish you knew.

You're Not a Regular. You're a Request.

If you walk in every day asking for Blanton's and never buy anything else, you are not their favorite customer.

It isn't about markups or ego. It's simple economics. If you only show up for the hot bottles, nobody has a reason to hold one back for you.

Store workers are not allocation vending machines. They remember who grabs a weekly six-pack, the holiday wine, or a Tuesday-night Old Grand-Dad.

They also remember who skips the hello and jumps straight to the ask.

These Bottles Used to Collect Dust

Not that long ago, Blanton's and Eagle Rare were just bottles on a shelf. Eagle Rare sat there for decades before the boom swallowed it.

The lifers behind the counter remember those days because they worked them. They watched the switch flip in real time.

Now a lot of those same bottles get claimed by the loudest people in the store.

Ask a veteran clerk and you'll hear a blunt theory. Plenty of hunters are chasing validation, not flavor.

How Stores Are Fighting Back

Some shops have quit the allocation circus. The daily calls, the drive-by visits, and the price complaints just aren't worth it.

Others built systems. Rank customers by spend. Call people in order. Sell at MSRP with clear rules.

Here's what that looks like at scale. ABC Fine Wine & Spirits members who pass 5,000 points earn "gold key" status. That gets them an invite to shop the chain's "vault," stocked with Blanton's, Weller, and Pappy.

Spend is the ticket. And even those systems can't escape complaints.

The common thread? Most stores actually want to help. They want good bottles going to people who'll drink them, not flip them.

How Bottles Actually Find You

Every worker story lands on the same truth. Manners beat "regular" status.

The customers stores remember:

• They say hello.

• They ask questions.

• They buy the odd bottle of wine or beer.

• They show patience instead of expectation.

Store-worker threads are full of the same story. A guy stops in every few weeks, buys something interesting, and chats with the staff. Then he gets a surprise call when Midwinter Night's Dram or Elijah Craig Barrel Proof lands.

No rewards program. Sometimes he never even left a number.

The best collectors aren't sprinting from store to store with a checklist. They know the staff by name. They ask about new distilleries. They try something unfamiliar.

🥃 Rick's Final Thought

The boom changed how we buy bourbon. It shouldn't change how we treat people.

The best bottles often go to customers who never demanded a thing. They showed up, asked questions, bought what they liked, and treated the staff like humans.

Want a better collection? Start with better conversations.

The person behind the register holds the keys to the back room. Act like it.