Post #766126 by JenTiki on Tue, Jul 12, 2016 1:55 PM

I totally agree with getting to know the folks in your local store. Here in North Carolina I can't get squat worth drinking, but ... 30 minutes away in South Carolina, where the liquor laws are reasonable, there's a great store with a very knowledgeable spirits buyer who really cares about getting what his customers want. He's also humble enough to admit that I know more about rum than he does, so when his distributors alert him to something new in their portfolio, he shoots me an email to ask if it's worth buying! He has gone way out of his way to source some of my favorite bottles I used to be able to get in California, but are hard to find here. Fortunately, he has other customers who enjoy trying the new rums he brings into the store on my behalf, so he's not losing money on my oddball requests. He has even helped connect his distributors with importers and producers who are friends of mine.

So when you do find an employee (or better yet, a buyer) who really does want to help, make them your best friend, which might even mean having them over for drinks when they get you that special bottle you can't find anywhere else.