Yankee Wine & Spirits has been under new ownership for seven months and already much has changed. The Newtown, Connecticut-based business now sports a more-inviting interior, plus an expanded focus on craft beer and digital platforms. This is the vision-turned-reality of new owner Chris Ciskey (picture above, center).
Ciskey had worked at the store for eight years, including four as manager, before buying out the prior owners in September.
“It’s a business I love,” he says. “It was a natural move. I actually met my wife here when we were both employees, so I have a lot of history here.”
With so much invested in Yankee Wine & Spirits, Ciskey wasted little time after taking over before implementing upgrades. He immediately began a significant overhaul of the store’s physical and digital presences.
His changes also included a new name. The store had been known as Yankee Discount Wine & Spirits. Removal of one word erased any doubt that this location catered to today’s consumer of premium craft alcohol. “We’re not a discount store,” Ciskey says.
Bring on the Beer
Yankee’s new owner always specialized in craft beer. Ciskey first gained deep interest in the category after a 2002 trip to Cooperstown, New York, and the nearby Ommegang craft brewery. When he took over at Yankee Wine & Spirits, he prioritized improving the craft beer selection.
“It’s easily doubled now,” he explains, “though the space has stayed the same. We’ve just maximized it.” Sure enough, the shelves of the craft beer aisle are packed tight.
Customers who walk into the store are greeted by the mix-six display. It’s a newer program that has found success. “Today’s beer drinker has tasting ADD,” Ciskey says. “They want to try new stuff without committing to a 4- or 6-pack.”
Most stores by now offer mix-six options. Some retailers allow customers to pick singles for these out of any available 6-packs, but Yankee doesn’t. It makes for an “inventory nightmare,” Ciskey says, as there will be 6-packs missing a single — becoming 5-packs — throughout the beer section.
“And we’re big on aesthetics here,” he adds.
The store is also big on IPAs and local breweries, both of which are top sellers. Ciskey believes that the country’s ongoing IPA craze is particularly strong in New England. He has had trouble keeping certain regional breweries in stock, like New York’s newly opened SingleCut. “It’s flying off the shelves,” Ciskey reports.
On the opposite end of the sales spectrum, bombers have fallen out of favor among customers. Although certain popular bottles still sell well, like the Stone Brewing Enjoy By series, overall “bombers are dying,” Ciskey says.
Rather than a 22-ounce bomber, customers and brewers alike prefer their premium beers in 4-packs. “It’s now all about the 16-ounce bottle,” Ciskey explains. A walk down his beer aisle tells all: bombers from years past still sit on the shelves.
Focusing on premium brews creates another dilemma faced by Yankee Wine & Spirits and all beer retailers: how to handle the hardest-to-find products — like Sip of Sunshine, Heady Topper, G-Bot or Kentucky Bourbon Stout — that come in limited quantities despite great demand.
Yankee Wine & Spirits gives all customers equal opportunity. When a case of highly sought-after beer arrives, the store will post notice onto its social media pages. This gives every follower a fair chance at purchase — in limited amounts, of course — before supply runs out (and it promotes the store’s social presence).
Bigger or Brighter?
Yankee Wine & Spirits looked a lot different one year ago. The store had dark-colored walls, carpeting and outdated tiles in the beer section. After Ciskey took over in September, he immediately went to work brightening the interior.
Before the month was out, he and his team had repainted the walls, turning what had been a dark store into a brighter experience for shoppers. Then in October, up came the carpet and tiles, and down went a wood-paneling vinyl floor.
Ciskey and his team worked in 14-hour shifts to get everything done as quickly as possible. They kept one half of the store open while the other half was undergoing renovations. The extra efforts paid off – the makeover took just four days. And during that time, Yankee Wine & Spirits was closed for only seven hours of business.
“We did everything we could to accommodate our customers as best we could,” Ciskey recalls.
The overhaul included a reorganized layout. Racks were backed off from the front of the store, which opened up space and made the area more efficient. This has already paid dividends, as Ciskey has begun using the space for monthly wine classes. And a table in the front space offers grab-and-go alcohol baskets and packs for customers who need a quick gift.
Between the expanded open space in the front and the brighter look overall, “everyone thinks it’s gotten bigger in here,” Ciskey says. “It’s made a real big difference. People have asked us if we expanded.”
The Digital Domain
Before Ciskey took over, Yankee Wine & Spirits lacked a robust online presence. Now, thanks the efforts of Ciskey and his brother/co-owner Scott (pictured atop, left), the store enjoys an effective digital presence.
“Since buying the place, the internet has been the best tool we have,” Ciskey says. “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve put something online, people have seen the product and then come in looking to purchase it. I know it works.”
Of course, this scenario requires that people are connected with the store’s website and social profiles to begin with. One way that Yankee Wine & Spirits has built up this critical online following is by directing customers to the sites while in-store.
When someone comes in looking for something hard to find (or sold out), Ciskey suggests that they follow the store’s social accounts for stocking updates. The business card he hands out has all the store’s links printed on the back, to facilitate customers making these digital connections.
“I try to be very active on all our accounts–Instagram, Facebook and Twitter,” Scott says. “I try to be on them at least once per day.”
Scott also created and launched the store’s new, modern website. It took him over 160 hours to build, he recalls, with the site going online about four months ago. The store uses the website to post info like events, coupons, a blog and new products.
Google Analytics allow Scott to watch and measure how people interact with the website. Most people land on the homepage and the website averages about 400 clicks per day. “That’s not huge, but it’s growing,” Scott says. “The first month we were getting only 100 each day.”
Facebook has been even more successful for Yankee Wine & Spirits. On a slow day their page receives 200 clicks — on a better day, 1,000-plus. It’s become a consistent source of connecting with customers. It’s also an effective form of customer service. People post questions for Yankee Wine & Spirits, where Ciskey and his brother can answer in a timely, direct manner.
It’s another modern aspect of a business that, in short time, has benefitted greatly from a new owner who has enhanced the store with forward-thinking strategies and upgrades.
Wine Educator
Although Yankee Wine & Spirits of Newtown, Connecticut has recently increased its craft beer selection, the primary focus remains wine. And behind this big part of the business is a manager who brings a lifetime of experience and passion to the position.
Steve Small (pictured atop, right) first entered the alcohol industry as a pub owner in West Virginia. He later came to Connecticut, where he would own a package store for 13 years. He sold that shop five years ago, and for the last two years has worked for Yankee Wine & Spirits, all while also traveling extensively to explore wine across the world (and he is also a member of the Beverage Dynamics Retailer Wine Panel).
If there are vineyards to see and taste, he’s been there. And Small has liked what he’s found all over the map. “I really don’t think I can say there’s one specific spot that trumps all the rest,” Small says. “Though I was in South Africa a few years ago. The value-to-quality ratio there is quite high.”
“That’s key to our business, whether you’re selling a $10 or $50 bottle,” he continues. “A wine has got to represent a good value for its price.”
With such an expansive knowledge in wine and its production, it’s natural for Small to teach customers at Wine Yankee Wine & Spirits. So every third Thursday of each month, Small hosts lessons in the newly cleared out front of the shop.
Beyond his experience, his credentials include the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 4 diploma. That’s the highest credential handed out by the world’s largest provider or wine qualifications. It required Small travel into New York weekly for classes. He is also a certified wine specialist, and plans to seek similar certification as a wine educator.
“Our in-store classes started about a month ago,” he says. “So far they’ve gone well. I started with the basics of wine. This month I’m teaching wine-and-food pairings. I’ll go over how different wines taste with different foods like cheeses, sausage or something sweet. Because wines – both red and white – taste differently depending on what you’re eating with them.”
Small is already enjoying teaching wine. It lets him “share his knowledge and passion.”
Customer Questions
Of course, Small educates people about wine every day that he works at Yankee Wine & Spirits, since customers regularly come in with questions for store staff before making a purchase.
“The most common question we get is, ‘I’m making this for dinner. What wine goes with it?’” Small reports. “Or people will say something like, ‘I don’t like Chardonnays,’ and my reaction is, ‘Sure, but what Chardonnays have you tried?’ There’s this kneejerk reaction that they’re all overly oaky or buttery.”
Recommendations with certain varietals are also common, like a good cabernet or pinot noir, or red blends in general. Yankee Wine & Spirits does post ratings from major wine websites on some bottles, but they also taste test everything themselves.
“That way I can say that I’ve also tasted the wine and that the website and I agree,” Small says with a laugh.
It also allows Yankee Wine & Spirits to offer only what they consider to be the best products. “Because we’re tried it all, we can truly say that everything in this store is handpicked,” Chris Ciskey says.
So there’s an answer for any question at Yankee Wine & Spirits. And there’s a manager eminently knowledgeable in Small, who really knows his wine thanks to a lifetime spent enjoying and exploring the category. “I’ve really been all over the world,” he says. “I’ve been lucky to do that and it has been a tremendous experience.”
Kyle Swartz is the associate editor of Beverage Dynamics Magazine. Contact him at kswartz@epgacceleration.com.
