Generations three and four: Jared Kane and his son Joshua.
In the Kane family since 1961, Beverage Barn, a multi-location package store on Long Island, has seen many changes over the years.
But as Jared—the third Kane generation to work at the business—tells it, a keen eye on beer trends and a hearty adoption of modern marketing strategies has kept the Kane family on the path of success.
Dan Kane opened his first store in 1961. The business transitioned to his son, Henry, in the late ‘90s when Dan retired. About four years ago, Henry’s son, Jared, returned to the family business and is currently managing their East Meadow location.
As Jared tells it, the beer scene was a lot different back when his grandpa opened their first store. “You basically had one beer coming in at a time,” Jared says. “The person unloading the truck would place one case at a time on a roller board that ran from the truck down into the warehouse.”
And when the cases got there?
“There'd be one more guy in the warehouse stacking the cases. They'd go up to the ceiling. That was your beer delivery for the week.”
Does that sound like your beer delivery process? Didn't think so. Even Jared only remembers it from stories.
But just because of advances in distribution, it doesn't mean there aren't challenges. Quite the contrary.
“It's definitely a different situation now. A lot of the people come in looking for, say, 16 oz. IPA cans. Nothing but. They'll try one hazy IPA, love it, and then come back to the store. But when they return, they never get the same thing again. They say, 'Yeah, I loved that one … what do you have that's similar?'”
Now that's a challenge.
Jared has done his job: He's gotten a segment of his customers to fall in love with one of the products he sells. But their basic disposition means that he's unable to rely on them coming back for the same product.
So, what do you do?
Two steps: Adjust how you stock and order, and then tell people about it.
Jared has his ear to the ground about the beers he can get, so he takes care of that first piece.
BeerMenus is the way he tells people about his beers: “BeerMenus has its customer notifications buttoned up—it’s the best way for me to tell people about the beers I have, hands-down.”
About a year ago, Untappd for Business reached out to Jared, who currently has an annual BeerMenus membership at Beverage Barn's East Meadow location.
Untappd offered to credit him for the amount of time he had left on his BeerMenus membership, and then offered him a free membership at the other Beverage Barn location. Free service? He had to at least give it a shot. He started using Untappd to advertise his beers and put BeerMenus on the backburner.
He didn't continue using Untappd for long. “It was clear that my customers were disappointed when I stopped updating my beers on BeerMenus. A couple used Untappd but, all in all, BeerMenus is the best way to reach my customer base.”
Jared's contract with Untappd is still ongoing, so he has access to Untappd tools. But he often doesn't bother to use them.
“I tell my employees that they have two primary responsibilities at the store: keep BeerMenus up to date and make sure the shelves are properly stocked and labeled. Everything else follows after that—Untappd updates included.”
Jared wasn't always going to follow in his father’s and grandfather's footsteps. In fact, after graduating from Stony Brook University, he worked for six years in the investment consulting space. But the 9-to-5 desk job just wasn't working for him.
“Even with the 40-hour workweek and 2-3 weeks of vacation, I couldn't handle sitting behind a desk all day,” he said.
Makes sense coming from a guy who worked ski patrol on North Creek’s Gore Mountain for awhile.
He was grateful for the soft landing he had available: “You know, I've been in the store since I was a little kid, so I know retail front and back. It just felt so natural to come back here.”
So that's when the third Kane generation assumed a full-time role at the Beverage Barn, something he relishes, despite the 60-hour workweeks.
Jared knows it's a tradeoff: “If you want to build a stable and profitable business, you have to be prepared to make some lifestyle tradeoffs. You need to expect to put your social life on hold for a few years while you focus on developing and nurturing the business.”
So what's next? Joshua, Jared's son, is only 2 years old, but he already loves visiting his daddy at the store. He pushes the buttons on the register and credit card machines and especially loves making unintelligible announcements over the store's PA system:
