10/4/2023 0 Comments Big yankee spirits storeKeeping customers happy through pricing, friendliness and service is the base line, but sharing knowledge provides that extra something that goes a long way to building loyal customers, he says. ![]() ‘I haven’t worked the floor in a number of years, but I know it was always easier to say, ‘I’ve tried this and it’s really good,’ rather than, ‘I’ve read about it and it’s supposed to taste this way.’’ ![]() Using objective supplier-provided training programs has helped bring staff up to speed on the world of spirits, and Yankee encourages employees to taste all the different products, especially new ones, that they can. ![]() Our wine department is not unique in that way, but we also have an educated beer department, and we educate them on spirits as well, which not very many stores do at all.’ ‘One of the things were very proud of and really try to do well is to educate our floor staff. Yankee Spirits manages and operates all three.)Īfter price and selection, Yankee’s commitment to service is most important, noted Cimini. (He personally owns the Sturbridge and Attleboro units, while his father and former company chief operating officer Don Cimini owns the Swansea store. Making sure their large format stores offers a broad selection at great prices is the philosophy of Yankee Spirits, said Cimini, who heads up the company as president and chief executive officer. ‘We think that the South Shore/Providence area has one demographic, while the Sturbridge area, which draws from northern Connecticut and central MA, has one that’s different,’ said Cimini. In its first year, the average dollar ring in the Swansea store more resembles South Attleboro. While the stores are similar in size, they differ slightly in category performance Sturbridge is more fine wine-focused, while South Attleboro is a more spirits-centric store. Their location in Sturbridge, about an hour west near the Connecticut border in south central Massachusetts, measures 30,000 square feet and is the largest beverage alcohol store in New England. It’s the kind of social feedback and word-of-mouth that makes most marketers salivate, and the sort of customer loyalty it exemplifies is one of the reasons Yankee has been able to do well and even expand: the company just opened a 28,000 square foot store last June in Swansea in southeastern Massachusetts near the Rhode Island border, about 20 miles south of the 26,500 square foot South Attleboro store. I picked up an AMAZZZING Viognier for about 10 bucks.’ Here’s what one posting had to say at, for instance, ‘Yankee Spirits’¦has a stellar liquor and wine selection with lots of specials, discounted prices, a friendly staff, and tons of cards toting recommendations. Other consumer social review sites give the stores equally glowing reviews. With a little more than 35% of their dollars today coming from wine, just over 35% from spirits and almost 20% from beer (food and gift baskets account for about 10%), their business is spread around, and all categories get their due.Īnd while internal surveys and anecdotal reports from staff have convinced president and ceo Michael Cimini that price is definitely the number one reason Yankee Spirits is one of the most successful beverage alcohol superstores in the East, customers find selection almost as important. Plenty of stores as big as Yankee Spirits give short shrift to one category or another, and some are content to focus mostly on wine and simply fill their spirit shelves with large format bottles of the best-selling liquors. ![]() Yankee Spirits, now a three-store chain with units in South Attleboro, Sturbridge and Swansea, in fact, does a lot of everything, and that’s one of the reasons the company is Beverage Dynamics’ Retailer of the Year for 2009. In these times, few stores still try to do it all, but in Massachusetts, at least three major retail outlets are well known for meeting every beverage alcohol need of even the fussiest shopper. There are beer barns stocking unique brews from all over the world wine shops that seek out only small production Italian vintages, or where the category is promoted as fun and festive and clubby liquor stores where malt geeks can count on finding the latest obscure whiskey from Scotland and Kentucky. In the modern age of retail specialization, wine, beer and spirits shops are sprouting up for every potential customer and all tastes.
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