Years ago I worked as a wine and spirit distributor. Coming out of college what kids dream job doesn't involve being the liquor rep at the bar and tripping the life fantastic. I mean, think of all the free stuff you get!
Well, its true you get a lot of free stuff while you worked for one of these companies. However you constantly skirted the definition of "theft" every time you took something. The free "stuff" was for people who consume your products...you technically consume the products too...so why not?
One of my accounts was a run down converted Hinky Dinky grocery store in a rough part of Omaha NE. My boss took me into the store the first time and told me that he and the last sales guy walked up to a scene where the manager had been stabbed by a customer trying to bounce a check. He thought it was funny as hell and I became very alert to my surroundings.
We walk in this store and the smell of spoiled milk and cleaning supplies permeated the air. That kind of smell where you could tell someone was trying to cover a horrible odor but wasn't getting paid enough to really try hard to remove it. We met the new manager and he showed me the store.
"We get a lot of homeless people and you should never be here on check day, its just too crazy." I had to act like I had a clue what he was talking about but after a few weeks I understood where he was coming from. My boss asked how things were going since he took over from the previous, stabbed, manager.
"Things are going great! We got all the hard liquor locked up so people cant steal it or drink it in the store and we finally capped the open sewer in the back...so no more rats!" I honestly thought he was joking but he was serious. The store was a dump and nobody really cared to fix things up because they'd be broken as soon as they fixed it.
The people working there were a group of characters I enjoyed seeing. They didn't take shit from anyone and called your bluff instantly. Watching them wrangle drunks and other people trying to scam the counter became a sport.
Realizing this place was a train wreck and was on its last legs I also knew it had a large financial backer. (corporate) Nobody had done a reset in the liquor department for decades and it was hard to find the product you were looking for. So, I offered to get a group of people in and reset the liquor...in the morning...when we were safest.
After the reset the sales increased in the department because people could find the $1.99 Wild Irish Rose liters better than the $15 cream de cacao. I helped them get a hot feature price on pint and half pint bottles of vodka, which blew out the door.
Before they closed and became another store I made one enormous sale that blew everyone away in my company. Wild Irish Rose, which is %.01 below the limit for fortified wine (which is taxed higher), came out with a green apple flavor. They also offered a huge bonus to salespeople for both volume and a distribution.
I approached my non-stabbed (lately) friend at the store and told him he could have first crack at the new "wild eye" flavor. The next week we delivered 2 pallets of liter bottles to the store. It was also the first Friday of the month when people came in to cash their assistance checks. I dragged the pallets out on the floor in front of the liquor department and simply cut the tops off the boxes.
A sign was placed in the middle of them which read "Wild Irish Rose GREEN APPLE! Exclusive vendor pricing $1.90 a bottle!" I hadn't even got the sign centered and the first 2 or 3 boxes were empty. The following Monday he placed another order to replace the 2 pallets (1 pallet = 72 boxes of 12 bottles each) which were gone by mid day Sunday.
Lesson learned? Regardless of the situation there is money to be made. While I didn't enjoy the idea of people spending money on booze rather than food or clothing its a reality in certain parts of the world. There was nothing I could do to sway that opinion and effect a change for the hundreds of people buying my products. So, if they're going to buy it anyway...why not buy it from me?
By working with the manager and gaining his trust I was able to ask what may have been the largest liquor order in the stores history. The sale pricing made them money in volume but the pricing had never been seen by their customers. The "exclusive" phrasing on the sign, while true for a very short period of time, created a sense of urgency. Customers who liked it told their friends and brought in new business to the store.
Going forward I was the "go to" liquor rep when it came to new products and support with advertising prices. I was also able to ask for favors with meeting sales quotas by shipping in a few cases here and there when needed.
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