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A spirited adventure in Whine and Liquor

You read that right. It seemed only fitting that the title of the post about my first full-time job preceded a wittily worded tagline with a pinch of how I felt about the job at the time. Only in hindsight can I tell you that it was a great learning experience, but living it back then, when I wanted to do everything except wake up every morning at 4 am every morning, drive to the loading dock of a store, unload a pallet of wine and build a display with its cases – was a challenge.

I graduated in May of that year with a BA in Journalism and a minor in Sociology. Perfect experience for managing grocery accounts and selling in wine displays, right? Education-wise, not exactly, but I did get a head start from my experience working as a Retail Merchandiser for Procter & Gamble during my college years. I also spent a short stint of time with Dan Fredman Public Relations – a small and wonderful firm focused on PR for boutique wine brands. Now the math is mathing.

I finished school with hopes of writing and working in marketing or public relations, but the recession of 2008 nudged my plans in another direction. I remember interviewing for a marketing/public relations job and receiving an offer around the same time as I interviewed for Southern Wine & Spirits (SWS). I realllllly wanted that marketing job, but it didn’t pay as much and didn’t offer full benefits. Ever the first generation eldest daughter, I made the responsible decision to go against as semi-dream job and accepted the Account Sales Manager role with SWS.

As an ASM I managed grocery and big box (WalMart, KMart and Target) accounts in the San Fernando Valley. Each day, I drove to a rotation of stores in my territory, building relationships with store management and staff, and of course – the liquor managers. I managed a portion of the SWS portfolio that included Robert Mondavi Wines, Blackstone Winery, Svedka Vodka, Arbor Mist and more. The brands fluctuated slightly over time, but the work did not.

I solidified relationships, increased product facings, sold in wine displays, unpacked paletts of wine, built displays – swirl, sniff, sip, spit and repeat, for nearly four years. It was hard, physical work, but much of what I learned is still burned into the shelves of my brain.  

• Know your store format. What’s in a Target store? First you have the dollar spot and Starbies and then the women’s clothing, followed by the shoes, men’s clothing, electronics, toys, seasonal, grocery, pet, household, haba, etc. On a typical weekly grocery shopping trip, a customer shops the perimeter of the store first – deli, produce, dairy, meat, bakery, frozen, so on and so forth. 
• Know your customer. We learned that at the time, the average shopper was a 5’5 woman who was right-handed, handling all the grocery shopping for her household. (As a now married mother of two, I can confirm that this is accurate.) I knew my store layouts better than the back of my hand – the hot spots for impulse purchases and the parts of the deli where shoppers were most likely to accidentally bump their carts into a display. 
• Product placement is key, from your shelf placement at eye level for the 5’5 right handed lady, to your 20-case Halloween themed island display or even your three case stack by the King’s Hawaiian Rolls and rotisserie chicken during promo week. Just don’t set the bottles up too close to the warmer unless you want rancid chardonnay.  
• Relationships are everything, and solid ones are built on consistency. I made sure to be where I promised at the time I promised to be there, and this didn’t just go for the store staff. I always supported my manager, team members and even colleagues from competitor companies because in the liquor aisle of a Ralph’s at 3 a.m., we’re all equal. 

About five years after starting this job at SWS, I transitioned into my career as a digital marketer. Many internet advances and a pandemic later, my work world is largely virtual. I deeply appreciate the years I spent driving from account to account in my mom’s 1993 Honda Accord, interacting with store staff, my colleagues and customers in person. Feeling the blade of a box cutter zip across a case to create a window for bottles and their labels in a holiday display with Christmas music playing on the speaker. This job made me feel each season and holiday like nothing else in my life, and that impression stayed with me as I moved on in later years to create content calendars for the digital world. 

To me, the grocery store still remains a bit of a shopping conundrum. While nearly all grocery stores offer some version of online shopping and delivery or curbside pick up, the weekly in-person grocery run seems to hold strong. If there’s some space left in my career, I’d love to continue to explore the parallel of grocery shopping online versus IRL because it’s fascinating. Kids need new clothes? Target drive up order complete. Those cute holiday cups from Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel or World Market? Ordered for curbside pick up or delivery. Lactose free cottage cheese, eggs, mandarin chicken and King’s Hawaiian Rolls? How are you fulfilling that order?

After nearly four years, I decided my time at SWS was over. I was determined to make my back towards marketing and public relations. While I wouldn’t be able to completely shed my food and beverage account management scales, at least the next opportunity gave me wings.