With 14 locations — and a soon-to-be 15th location — situated throughout Minnesota, Top Ten Liquors has enjoyed steady growth since 2014. When owner Jon Halper acquired the chain in 2014, it consisted of only four stores. After nearly a decade, Top Ten Liquors now employs 250 people across its 14 locations.
Halper contributes the chain’s success to their customer service strategies. “For many years, we focused on important services such as short lines and carrying products out to cars for customers,” he says. “Over the last four to five years, we have been putting a heavy emphasis on meeting every customer in the aisle. Each shopper that walks in, we’re doing our best to interact with them.”
Honored as a Market Watch Leader in 2023, and now as a Top 100 Retailer in 2024, Top Ten Liquors’ success is certainly being noticed.
A Taste of Top Ten Liquors
One of the ways that Top Ten Liquors is able to make personal connections with customers is through their in-store tastings. Halper explains that not only does it help to introduce shoppers to new products, but it also helps to educate them on the different spirits.
“Tasting a product is very important in order to sell brands,” he says. “We’ve been tremendously committed to tastings in all of our stores for a long time.”
According to Halper, they particularly target Friday nights to offer tastings since it’s their busiest night of the week. “We’ll offer a few different options such as wine, spirits and THC beverages. It’s a nice way to get our weekend off to a fast start,” he notes.
Keeping Customers Loyal
Another aspect that has brought success to Top Ten Liquors is their loyalty program.
With more than 150,000 active members, Halper says that it has been significant to business growth.
“Club members get preferred pricing on a significant portion of the items we sell, and it’s super easy to sign up. We have built a strong customer following because of the prices in the program,” he says. “People can also accumulate points to earn gift cards, discounts and birthday rewards.”
The liquor-store chain recently revamped their loyalty program, implementing a process for members to use their loyalty points on certain allocated items in the store. They also have Sunday specials that members can take advantage of.
“I would say that over 80% of transactions are tied to club accounts, so this program has been very significant to the growth of our business,” notes Halper.
Cannabis Beverages Hit Shelves
The Minnesota-based liquor store chain offers a variety of beverage alcohol products, including beer, wine, vodka, rum, whiskey, tequila, gin, brandy/cognac, cordials, liqueurs and RTDs, among other non-alcohol merchandise. They recently added cannabis beverages to their product lineup and Halper says sales have been doing very well.
“We have a variety of cannabis products, including seltzers, gummies and other items,” he notes. “This is a new business for Top Ten Liquors that began last June when it became legal for us to sell. Over the course of several months, the category became 10% of our overall business.”
The category is doing so well that it’s even outperforming craft beer and any singular category of wine, according to Halper.
“It also outperforms many spirits categories, so it’s a very meaningful business and it continues to grow,” he says.
With the new location expected to open soon in Stillwater, Halper expects sales to continue to boost revenue for Top Ten Liquors. “The area has a solid demographic with heavy penetration, and there’s a lot of great retail. It’s a high-profile space, so it should be a great store for us,” he says.
Editor’s Note: This is part of our annual coverage and celebration of The Top 100 beverage alcohol retailers in the U.S., including the naming of our 2024 Retailer of the Year.
Krystina Skibo is the Trade Managing Editor at Beverage Dynamics. Reach her at kskibo@epgacceleration.com. Read her recent piece, Vodka Trends in 2024.
