The idea of owning a liquor store sounds great, doesn’t it? It sounds like you get to play around with booze all day and you never have to worry about allocation ever again because you get to keep all the Pappy and Blanton’s for yourself. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a business that relies on margin to keep the doors open. And when those doors are open, you don’t really know what can happen next. Tony Konja is the owner of Keg N Bottle. We’ve talked about Keg N Bottle a few times because that’s our partner store for our barrel selections. But the real reason we have Tony on the show is talk about a deeper subject of the retail liquor business and that is theft. No matter what you get into, you have to assume there are terrible humans out there that will take advantage of any situation. Tony gives us an introspective look into how he combats theft from brick and mortar locations as well as online retail and how this business has even had him being held a gun point saying his last prayer.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the end of the bourbon boom
• Can you share your background and how you got into owning a liquor store?
• Do you remember about theft at the grocery store?
• Can you describe the setup in your store with walls of liquor?
• Is there a magic formula for knowing the amount of theft to account for?
• What measures do you take to minimize theft?
• What products typically have a higher theft rate?
• Have you ever been held at gun point?
• Is there a bourbon stolen pretty regularly?
• How do you thwart illegitimate activity with online orders?
• Is there a reason to keep stores open later than 10pm?
• Can you talk about how private barrel picks can get stolen in California?
• How do you deal with customers that say they never received a package from a carrier?
• @kegnbottleusa
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