in undergraduate programs in the city.
For Wilbur’ s, this represents a bit of a tradeoff. While CSU provides plenty of young employees, and the store does get some business from the colleges,“ We’ re on the wrong side of town,” Mat says. The university is on the other end of Fort Collins, where a competitor does good business catering to the nearby college crowd.
“ The student housing is over there, and not a lot of students are shopping at Whole Foods,” Mat says.“ We do get some of the discerning students shopping in here, however. And, in general, younger consumers are drinking less these days.”
Wilbur’ s is known for supporting its community, and that extends to the university. Mat guest lectures in business classes, explaining to students the realities of the modern economy and job market. He stresses realistic strategies for seeking employment after graduation, and the importance of expanding one’ s earnings with side hustles.
Naturally, these classroom appearances are also a recruiting tool, as well as a learning exercise for Mat.
“ It allows me to stay connected with the younger generation,” he says.“ I can get a gauge on where the kids are at: Who’ s using cannabis, who’ s drinking what.”
HIRING AND TRAINING
Mat is honest about the downward state of the beverage alcohol retail industry.“ We haven’ t had to do a lot of hiring thee last two years,” he says.
In 2004, Wilbur ' s moved into a 24,000-square-foot site next door to a Whole Foods, which has helped with foot traffic.
“ We’ re in a business that’ s in a downturn. We’ ve been going through a rightsizing of our business. We’ ve cut our staff in half.”
That said, some hiring does still happen, when necessary, of course.“ You have to have customer service abilities, and we want people who want to be here,” Mat says.“ If you’ re not an outgoing person, you’ re not going to be here.”
Wilbur’ s has benefitted from good hirings years ago that have paid dividends for some time.
“ We have three people who have been here for 25 years each,” Mat says.“ Four employees have been here for 15 years each, and another handful have been here for eight to ten years each.”
Employing so many staffers with impressive longevity is a primary factor behind the family atmosphere at Wilbur’ s.“ It’ s not perfect, and it’ s a bit of a dysfunctional family here, but that’ s what you should expect if you’ ve been working long enough with people anywhere,” Mat says with a laugh.
His daughter Olivia is currently a student in the CSU system. She began working at Wilbur’ s just weeks before this magazine feature interview.
“ It’ s really fun,” Mat says of working with his daughter at the family business.“ She and her brother have grown up here. I’ ve got pictures of the two of them helping around the store when they were four and six years old. Now she comes in on Sundays and helps. That’ s three generations of the same family at our business. Not a lot of families have done that.”
CURRENT TRENDS
Like most others in beverage alcohol retail, Mat sees our current era as a time of change. Especially among younger consumers, whose shifts in drinking tendencies have greatly affected the industry.
“ There’ s the obsession with THC drinks,” he says.“ We’ re not going down that road yet. There’ s insurance and credit card problems. But lots of other places are trying to do it. It’ s the Wild Wild West in that space now. It’ s something our industry should be selling, though. We’ re good at age-restricted products.”
Wine, he sees, as having a“ big problem now. There’ s a glut of wine out there. We’ re getting calls all the time about taking wines for ten cents on the dollar. We just can’ t do it. It’ s really slowed. Boomers [ who largely drive wine sales ] are tapping out.”
Considering his SKU mix, Mat says that the store used to be 50 % wine, 25 % spirits and 25 % beer. Now, that has switched to 45 % spirits, 35 % wine and less than 20 % for beer. www. beveragedynamics. com Winter 2025 • Beverage Dynamics 19