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If a store charges outrageous prices just don’t shop there at all and tell your friends not to shop there. No bottle of whiskey (if you are actually drinking it) is worth more than MAYBE $300 and that’s very few bottles IMO

Knowledge is power

Sazrac owns them now I don’t think it’s their distillete I think it is Brown foreman still ???

The last vid was reasonable, well thought out and logical. So is this one. Keep doing ya thing fella.

Store owner sells bottle for MSRP. Customer buys it, flips it on secondary, makes a killing, 20x what the brick and mortar biz did. Customer is happy. Store owner sells bottle at secondary, higher or just under so the customer willing to pay secondary gets it. Customer who wants to buy low and sell high unhappy and wails it's unfair.

This is why I insist on staying away from crazy mark up. It only takes one idiot to spend 500% msrp to ruin it for the real bourbon drinkers out there. Unfortunately there are enough idiots out there to make it financially feasible to be patient and wait for them to spend those crazy prices.

SMH… I’ve overpaid so many times because I didn’t know better… but I’ve been in the space for 2 years now and learned some great lessons!

I never pay retail I’ll just send crack heads in there store and get it for half price and if they really piss me off I’ll send 50 kids on bikes in there and they’ll need a new store😂😂😂 I’m not joking 😊

It’s the Indian way😂😂😂😂mark it up

The problem lies in the state systems. Liquor should be just something you buy over Amazon like any other consumer product, having it pass through 3 or 4 entities is ridiculous.

Was the email from Grand Cru in OKC?

Hey Charles you got that rite , I walk in the stores and they have secondary prices I just walk out.... A friend has a store and he said even the distributors always push them also to jack up the prices on allocated but he says he marks up all the bottles the same percent even if its allocated .... Thanks

You honest and truthful ❤

Have a chain store not to far from me that magically has an allocated bottle in stock every Wednesday when they receive their shipments yet magically those bottles are never available for sale. "it's a bug in our system". Bullshit, they are going out the back door an on the secondary market.

Listen brother you called the liquor store out, you are 100% correct, I reside Ajax Ontario 🇨🇦 we just had a bourbon drop at lcbo, Eagle Rare 10 yr old $66,40, Weller Antique 107 $72.95, E.H.Taylor Small Batch $106.40, Blanton's Single Barrel $76.40, just to name a few, that's all in Canadian funds, that launch was less than 2 weeks ago, you are 100% correct, we are getting scam, love your content please continue, everyone listen to him❤ 8:46

Liquor stores are scum but the real mafia is the distributors… pick and choice game. Was designed to be fair and is anything but that… most people don’t know that most allocations go to restaurants, friends, owners, whiskey bars, and pay to play.

Exactly I first walk in new stores as traveling look or ask for allocated things ask price and if marked way up will walk out. I will not deal with stores like that. Do like some of this good stores do save them throw big party people buy raffles tickets and you sell them at MSRP or small faction more and you win and people will buy more while there. Seen tons of videos and meet store owners doing the raffle partys and it works. Or just sell at MSRP and you will get people to come back.

Please share more (alot more) of this type of content -- expose the greedy.

I also don’t shop there if I see a Tesla

Transparency is a must and they will be exposed 😆

Let’s be real bro, I don’t really care about the Liquor store or owners either I just want my bourbon (most of which they fail to secure)

This reminds me of a conversation I have seen over and over again on WhiskeyTube... "Do you feel obligated to buy something whenever you enter a liquor store?" This seems like a ridiculous question to me. If a store doesn't have anything I want, then I'm leaving and going to the next store. I don't owe them anything just for walking in the front door.

I think 99% of people who shop for allocated products that know a lot about liquor and know what the MSRP is on products. I think it's pretty well published. I'm pretty sure big box stores and little Mom and Pop stores pay the same price for the same liquor per capita with the exception of some wholesale places they get dozens of cases, but I doubt the price per bottle Is that vastly different to to give Mom and Pop stores the gall to charge $75 for a bottle of eagle rare. Stores that do this typically don't sell eagle rare, because everybody that's in the know is aware not to buy that for that price.

I would say the liquor stores are very much playing the victim card. I went to one the other day that had the nerve to try and sell Buffalo Trace for almost 60$ Eagle Rare for 100$ EH Taylor for 200$ and almost all the other items were marked up anywhere from 5$ to 20$. Benchmark products were literally almost 30$ The guy used every excuse he could. Tried saying they dont get products often, blah blah blah. Well the issue is they are over charging for damn near everything in their store that they aren't moving products. Crazy to me.

best content in the game! thanks

2:22 That's what I bought my Jack 10 for... in Ohio. :)

Bravo

What about Benchmark Bonded instead of EHT Small Batch? I think they're the same mash bill, so maybe the Benchmark is juice that didn't make the cut for EHT?

Something to be said about NC ABC. It may suck at times but the prices are fair.

That e-mail sounds like it could have come from any of the large number of museums in my area. I look at the prices on some of this stuff and laugh. I see no reason to overpay for hyped up bottles. There are plenty of alternatives. There are other spirits besides bourbon too, and bourbon isn't even my favorite - it is merely one of many things that I like. If bourbon becomes too much trouble, I can always buy rum. The bourbon boom can't last forever. It will be fun watching these stores adjust to the new reality when people get sick of it and stop paying way too much for certain bottles.

I live in a tri state area. One being kentucky. I usually just shop at my CVS because its msrp and decent selection. Im not going to find the rare bottles there but one example is Knob 12. At CVS in my state 64.99 plus tax. In the first stop crossing the bridge into KY its $99. I cross into KY to get the bargains. JTS Brown and a few others. Living in a tri state its crazy seeing the price difference on bottles.

Well said! I've met enough great people that run liquor stores and DON'T treat their customers like this to know that there's no reason for it other than greed.

Thanks for video!!!! I wish everyone would get on the same page im all about a deal do i have never paid this prices.... Im neve payimg more the 5-10 or retail why I don't have any of these bottles. I would love to have some jack 10 and 12. The new 14 coming out in 2025. I live in a small town and the store tried to charge me 200 for a Weller full proof not a chance

Expose the store.

More importantly than showing what a store paid, whiskey tubers and consumers need to stop giving out an arbitrary cost of what something is “worth” or telling what they paid. This price signal only reinforces the high cost of an item. You know store owners rely on whiskey tubers to get an idea of what to charge.

Why should liquor stores have to buy cases of one product to be able to buy higher-end products? That seems almost like coercing. People aren't forced to buy a truck for a chance to buy a car.

I appreciate the information you provide. I've been drinking bourbon for many years but only recently started buying more expensive releases. It really is a buyer-beware market. For example, ECBP has an MSRP of about $75 but I have seen it for as high as $139 in my area for the same batch. Had I not known the MSRP for this product, I would not know how much I'm overpaying. I won't be the "dumb ass" and overpay and if a store does engage in price gouging, I won't go back.

You're the man..keep up with the good work

100% brother! Inevitability this bourbon boom will come back down. When it does, I’m already going to enjoy watching several stores here in NJ come back to reality like the car dealerships have. When they struggle to keep up, I’ll be there for it. Never forget the greed they once had. Thankfully, products like Green River, BenHolladay and Bardstown are flipping this market on its head with affordable, better tasting bourbon. Cheers! 🥃

I mean that store isn't wrong. I can't hate the stores for doing what a vast majority of customers will do.until secondary dies the stores will charge secondary. I'd rather the store make the money than the guy who chases the truck to flip

Is it a similar situation in all the states that are not state controlled? I'm in CT and many of the lottery systems allowed in other states are not allowed here. I go over the border to NY and they can't have a owner who has more than 1 store. Total Wine for example has just 1 store in all of NY. Could some of these distribution/retailer rules that you discussed be different in other states than the one you worked in?

Just found your channel and subscribed and like. I believe that you should not have to pay crazy prices.I know where 4 Bottles of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon . The cheapest one out of the 4 stores want $800 for a $200 msrp bottle I just can't do that it's not worth it. I like your channel keep up all the hard work. CHEERS

I've seen store owners / managers do some really shady things, like change the rules of a raffle the day of . But here in southeastern Massachusetts the biggest distributor puts unrealistic or illegal terms on allocated bottles. Having to purchase none related products or pallets of nips just to get a few bottles of lets say eagle rear and not even a case .

Yep, greed is at the core of the problems ailing the bourbon market (and all whisk(e)y in general). Greed on the part of distillers/ndp's, distributors, stores and speculator/flipper buyers. The amount of people looking to grift the bourbon market has exceeded the amount of people that actually care about and drink the stuff. I get that the stores need to make a living as well and the liquor stores are starting to be viewed by bourbon enthusiasts the same way coin/bullion collectors look at coin/bullion stores. There is always going to be some sort of overhead margin to pay employees, pay operating expenses, property upkeep, taxes, etc. But the sheer avarice on display at virtually almost all stores selling liquor is grotesque. In the end this is only going to hurt consumers and ironically the businesses themselves when the pendulum swings back. Taxes are high, cost of living is through the roof and not improving, we're looking at a severely weakened economy going into next year, you've got the election coming up and all the government waste and deficit spending with no end in sight. People are starting to pull back and really watching their bucks. But if you're in the 1%, things are fantastic as everything is falling apart for the other 99%.

You can go on the NC state ABC warehouse page and see what brands are in stock and the pricing (since they are a control state all bottles are sold at MSRP). I live in SC and all ABC stores here are privately owned and this marking up of allocated bottles (often to full secondary price) happens all over. Distribution in SC is handled by a third-party vendor (and you can't tell me that there aren't some stores that are paying a "premium" to get more allocated bottles). The local store in my area that gets all the allocated bottles has a list of the who's who in town that don't care and will pay markups for those bottles. The system needs an overhaul.

Exactly I have a store an hour from me that will have insane sales and I guarantee you they do this enough that they can’t be losing money. They’re selling makers Mart 46 for 2799 bottle many times you can get not Creek nine year for 2499 a bottle that’s 750 ML, so these places are charging $38-$47 for 750 of makers Mark 46 is making a lot of money when this store regularly has it on so-called sale for 27.99

Thanks for the inside look. I appreciate it. 🥃

Another good video brother 👍💯😉

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin one." -Warren Buffett "It's not about what you like, it's about the consumer." -Joe Dirt This is all day one stuff. Bad actors always kill the golden goose.

I have several relatives that were in the grocery/liquor business for over 50yrs in the Detroit area , myself for over 20yrs. Till everyone retired . We treated customers like they were family. These "New Owners " don't care about anything but money and treat customers like they are dime a dozen. All I say is good luck to them. Michigan is a state minimum state but they let you charge all you can get out of liquor if you want which I think is not a way to do business. 🤔 Cheers my friend 👍