Today, Garfield ' s operates 11 locations in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.

by KYLE SWARTZ

Among that small number of exemplary family enterprises is Garfield’ s Beverage Warehouse, in the Chicago metro region of Illinois. Owner Bruce Garfield— who took over from his father Norman, the company’ s founder— has the privilege of working alongside his son David. Attaining this impressive third-generation status is yet another chapter in the story of Garfield’ s, which dates back to 1951.

THE GROWTH OF GARFIELD’ S

Norman Garfield was working for a liquor store called Three Corner Liquor in the early‘ 50s, when he decided to open his own store. So he partnered with his cousin and they each came up with $ 1,000. Borrowing an additional $ 3,000 from uncles, they launched Cicero Cut-Rate Liquors in 1951, named for its home suburb in Chicago.( The term“ cut-rate” was popular for liquor stores at the time, the modern equivalent the term“ discount” now.)

Norman and his partner began their joint venture the same year that Bruce was born. Sadly, Norman’ s partner passed away not long after, in his late 20s, following complications with diabetes. Bruce’ s father was suddenly forced to run the shop by himself, working day and night, as Bruce recalls.

The effort paid off. In the mid−50s, Bruce moved the business into a bigger location down the block. It became a self-service model, which did very well, Bruce

recalls. He has many memories of the store as a child, since he spent much time there growing up.

“ As a kid, from six years old, I was working for my father every weekend,” he says,“ washing floors and stocking work.”

In 1974, Bruce graduated college and returned to work for his father’ s business full-time. A theme that defined the second and third generations soon emerged.“ The intention was always for me to find another store to run,” Bruce says.

Two years later, he did just that. Cardinal Liquors launched in 1976 in Crystal Lake, IL, about an hour and a half north from Cicero.“ It was a very good store,” Bruce says.“ It was just 3,000 feet, a discount store.”

This was an era in the industry before grocery and convenience stores could sell alcohol in Illinois. New items were coming out in vodka and whiskey that attracted consumer attention, and the Garfield family business continued to perform well in the‘ 70s.

“ I was trying always to convince my father to keep expanding,” Bruce says.“ He was a little more conservative than me.”

Still, expansion did come. Garfield ' s purchased two more stores. They hired managers to run these locations, while Bruce and Norman remained in charge at their respective spots.

In the‘ 80s, Norman had a health setback, so Bruce took over the leadership role atop all four stores.“ I got used to running a chain,” Bruce says.“ I always had the idea that we would add more stores to the chain.”

Bruce’ s brother Bennett joined the family business in the early‘ 80s, after finishing college. Bennett began helping their father at the Cicero location. Around this time, the idea came up to improve their buying power by forming a purchasing group with other independent operations.

“ Two to three other stores joined

8 Beverage Dynamics • 2025 Top 100 Issue www. beveragedynamics. com