When scouting for locations with the right kinds of consumers around, the Garfield’ s team takes note of what bars and restaurants are proximate. Lots of good cocktail bars in a neighborhood is an excellent sign of the desired, curious customer base.
On-premise service is also a large part of what makes Garfield’ s work in retail. A number of the stores contain fully stocked bars.
“ It’ s something unique that we offer, another reason to come to our stores,” David says.“ Instead of saying,‘ You need to try that’, we can say,‘ You can try it at the bar’.”
“ It’ s huge,” Bruce adds.“ It drives the innovation of the store. It’ s an avenue to expand the customer’ s palate while also giving them the opportunity to try something that’ s scarce. Especially with whiskey, it’ s an opportunity to try some of these bottles at a price that’ s not obscene.”
The bar is an excellent way to make effective, fair use of the small number of allocated bourbons distributed to the store. Stock them on the back bar and charge per pour, giving all customers equal chance at sampling rare whiskeys.
“ It really takes the uncomfortable pressure off for allocated products,” David says.
WHAT’ S TRENDING, WHAT’ S NEXT
The beverage alcohol business currently faces a number of headwinds, fueled largely by changing consumer interests, especially among Gen Z. Still, trends always exist, driving growth.
“ Tequila is still doing well,” David says,“ although there’ s been a shrink in dollar size. Luxury tequila was explosive during Covid, and now that has come down to earth. Customers are now exploring through the category.”
“ We’ re still seeing growth in RTDs, too,” he adds,“ along with low-and-no products, and THC beverages.”
Cannabis drinks are having a moment nationwide, and it’ s no different in Illinois. However, selling these products across a chain of stores in suburbs and the city can prove tricky.
“ We’ re figuring out in a few municipalities whether we can legally sell THC drinks there,” David explains, as some local laws broadly forbid cannabis sales.“ Where we can sell it, we’ ve expanded the sets. But we’ re particular about what we bring in. We want to make sure it’ s good for us.”
This sentiment currently echoes across the industry, as the flood of cannabis drinks in recent years means products may have rushed to market without proper testing and packaging. Questions remain about the actual psychotropic content and other ingredients in some of these SKUs. Smart retailers like Garfield’ s have zeroed in on the most transparent THC brands.
“ We self-regulate what we sell,” David says.“ When we have conversations with municipalities about selling these products, we can point how the brands we sell have their full information listed out, right there on the can.”
Like the rest of the industry, Garfield’ s has observed Gen Z and Millennials consumers drinking less and less. These younger generations— which are more health conscious and, especially Gen Z, will swap alcohol for cannabis— have affected how the industry operates.
“ We’ re not just about being there for your everyday drinker,” David says.“ We want to be your go-to source for your vacation, for when you do decide to drink. We want to build that repertoire with consumer, and that’ s why service is so important for us.”
“ We have an ecommerce site for people who don’ t want to come into the store,” he adds.“ And we make sure our brand is at the forefront for customers who are just casually passing by.”
Of course, it’ s not just younger consumers who are increasingly health conscious nowadays. The rapid rise of GLP−1 weight loss drugs has seen people of all ages cut back.
“ GLP−1 drugs are not helping the case,” David says.“ Alcohol consumption levels drop tremendously when you’ re on those drugs. And you can’ t fight that.”
Bruce also sees the healthier lifestyle as transcending generations, caused in part by recent historic events.
“ After the pandemic, how much everyone drank during it, everyone thought,‘ I can’ t keep doing that to my body,” he says.“ And that has carried over until now.”
Nevertheless, despite ongoing industrywide headwinds, Garfield’ s remains focused on growth and expansion.
“ Even though business is not as good as we may want, we’ re still looking to expand, both in the suburbs and in Chicago,” Bruce says.“ We’ re not as excited about opening new stores as when things are going great. We’ re more cautious now than in the past. We’ re optimistically cautious.” •
10 Beverage Dynamics • 2025 Top 100 Issue www. beveragedynamics. com