Raiding a liquor store's backroom....am I in the wrong here?

[jvd99]

Enough said - we kinda got off on a tangent there.

[Josh]

I'll take responsibility for that. This thread was starting to get nasty anyway. Maybe it needed a tangent.

[nd2005]

It may mean I miss a bottle from time to time but if the owner is not present when I visit my primary stores I don't even ask for the LE's, even if their spouses are working at that time.

I know that both owners have a few customers like myself that want these and they both get limited bottles so I assume they know who they are holding them for and will wait until I can speak with them directly even if they have called and left me a message that a bottle is waiting.

May not be the best approach but just the way I do it.

Ditto.

The only time I buy a bottle when the owner isn't there is when one of the other employees says - "Oh hey, TunnelTiger said to give this to you if you came in"

[bin31z]

Is this identifiably a private office or just a small storeroom with a desk in the corner?

Yea I think people are thinking it's like an office office. It is a small store room where they keep more expensive liquor for inventory control. They have a locked display case in front of store but only holds 9 bottles at a time. The "office" had all kinds of stuffed stored in it from club soda to German robin. It has a table and chair but I jot the feeling it was a store room. Did not even think of this till now, I been back there many times before, first time I discovered the room, someone invited me back there because he had no idea what I was asking for so I always assumed it was a storeroom. When the manager called it his office, that's when I started to think otherwise.

[bin31z]

Not paid for in any way. I actually offered to return, but the manager said, no that's fine, you came and get you wanted. He said it in a resigned tone after I gave him a hard time for giving me a hard time. I honestly would have returned some but the way he came out of the blue and blew up on me instantly put me on the offensive.

[bin31z]

OP is the same one who posted a car pic with a case each of Handy, Stagg, and ER17...and was talking about his plans to trade/sell the 4R bottles. So I'm guessing he doesn't give a flying *** what the people who said he was in the wrong think. He was clearly coming here in hopes of getting told what he wanted to hear.

Not true, I was quite upset by the confrontation, I have never had one like that before. I know store owners from before bourbon got crazy and a lot of them are personal friends and/or tax clients. They set aside cases for me. I honestly had felt I was in the right. I thought that back area was a storeroom from its appearance. The employees past and present that have escorted me into that locked store room have never hesitated to sell me anything and I have never had a bad reaction from anyone. I been doing this at that store for about 4 years now and I had never even met that manager before. But I can see how my action could have been a jerk move. I called and apologized on the phone yesterday. Next time I go to that store, I will limit my search to front cabinets and ask someone else if there are more of them in stock if I wanted more.

[bin31z]

This store is like a Walmart sized place btw. A lot of you assume I'm like some aggressive weirdo walking into a little mom and pop store and bullying a teenager into letting me into this locked office with family pictures. This is like a Walmart sized store with a huge store room, a small section of it is locked and has walls made out of plywood or drywall. Inside are metal shelves with all kinds of stuff on it and a small metal desk with computer. I been here 4 years and no one hesitate to take me back there once the first person offered to let me back there or referred to it as an office.

[Paddy]

This thread provides some good learning opportunities for each of us.

To the OP: I'm sure you learned a valuable lesson here. I truly believe that this event upset you, which in turn caused you to reach out for feedback.

To the unknown employee and manager: You both could have handled this much better and/or avoided this fiasco. Maybe you'll both do better in the future after this experience. I sure hope so.

To my brethren: Is it possible that we get our eyes a little too glazed over when eyeing the prize? I think the answers lie herein.

Personally, I'll ask about anything in the back, but never actually go to the back. That way, the seller still has the opportunity to save face if they do have what I want, but maybe don't want me to have it. Sure, there are exceptions when dealing with an owner and/or friend, but my hope is that they appreciate the subtle nature of my approach, and possibly will remember it in the future... when my time will come.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Paddy

[tigerlam92]

I'm quite impress that we all have been able to express our honest opinions while still able to keep this thread quite mature.

Nice, SB.com!

Threads like this is actually quite difficult to start and I commend Bin for sharing this dilemma and putting this out there for all to discuss and debate.

Edited December 21, 2014 by tigerlam92

[bin31z]

Def a good life lesson in general. My father told me at one time that it is as hard for a rich man to get into heaven as it is for a elephant to get through the eye of a needle...or something like that. The point being when one person has a lot of something that everyone else wants as well, money or otherwise, it is quite likely that he's made some mistakes in his life and taken advantage of situations and other people. Probably why big oil tycoons who are ruthless businessmen tend to give so generously near the end of their lives.

[bin31z]

And again, in the end, I paid the asking price of the company that owns that inventory. The department manager is just an employee and shouldn't be able to determine who the company sells to, if he wanted to take them out in inventory, he should have bought them himself and kept them at home, not keep the items in the companies inventory. I hear people bitch and moan when bevmo employees hold back bottles for their friends and family so I don't really know why this is different. If he wanted to save them, he should buy them or have the customers come in right as the stock arrives. I asked the store customer service and was given permission to access the stock room and bought items that were in inventory in their system. I think I have no moral obligation to feel badly.

[bin31z]

Agreed, but the reality is that stores are called hundreds of times per day in the Fall, the stores deal with limited edition hunters that have never stepped foot in their store and never will again until Fall of next year, people clear shelves or buy anything limited they can get their hands on to the exclusion of, and with no thought of others, people bitching because they didn't get what they wanted, people camp out, form lines hundreds deep even if the store only gets a few bottles, out-of-staters are driving places chasing the releases, people follow trucks from the distributor and pester the employees as soon as it pulls in the loading dock, and now, because of knuckle-heads like the OP, store owners are supposed to lock their personal offices and throw away the key if they aren't sitting behind their own desk? It's all just stupid and I don't blame store owners for being jerky about it, and for what, maybe 10, 20, 30 bottles total that they were allocated. I'm sure stores would rather devote all of time spent dealing with LE hunters to moving other product in quantities that actually means something to their business. I can certainly understand that store owners don't want to deal with all that BS for so little in return. Unfortunately, everyone has to bear their indignation caused by the crazed masses.

Easy with the name calling. I may be hard headed but not a knucklehead.[emoji16]

[WhiskyRI]

Interesting discussion - thanks @bin31z for being willing to expose your story. Thanks to everyone for being mostly civil, and sorry about my own overly aggressive response.

[fusion210]

This thread provides some good learning opportunities for each of us.

To the OP: I'm sure you learned a valuable lesson here. I truly believe that this event upset you, which in turn caused you to reach out for feedback.

To the unknown employee and manager: You both could have handled this much better and/or avoided this fiasco. Maybe you'll both do better in the future after this experience. I sure hope so.

To my brethren: Is it possible that we get our eyes a little too glazed over when eyeing the prize? I think the answers lie herein.

Personally, I'll ask about anything in the back, but never actually go to the back. That way, the seller still has the opportunity to save face if they do have what I want, but maybe don't want me to have it. Sure, there are exceptions when dealing with an owner and/or friend, but my hope is that they appreciate the subtle nature of my approach, and possibly will remember it in the future... when my time will come.

I can't say it better myself, so I'll just quote!

I'm still 50/50. It was his space but he probably didn't have the authority to stash things. I think the best way I could put it is it's not something I would have done myself. In either of your cases.

[jvd99]

Bin31z - I apologize for the k****head comment, especially if you took it as a personal attack. I think I was trying to convey something along the line of doing something you may now have second thoughts about and it probably wasn't the best choice of words. So it was really a reference to the situation you described, not you personally. I value the civil nature of these boards and I'm sorry to everyone else if I was toeing the line.

[Special Reserve]

Not trying to be confrontational but just curious. Have you ever asked about anything in the back of a store, Will? I thought that was dusty hunter SOP.

I've gotten a few bottles from under the counter or on the floor behind the counter when I've asked if there is anything hidden away. I've never gotten anything that I felt was intended for someone else or have felt like I got away with something I shouldn't have nor have I gone to a posting board to ask if what I did was s db move.

Josh,

I need to add that I take no harm from your question.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Will

Edited December 22, 2014 by Special Reserve

[squire]

It was his space but he probably didn't have the authority to stash things.

Just because he calls it his office doesn't mean it's an office. A locked storage space that other employees can access isn't exclusive.

[BigBoldBully]

Just because he calls it his office doesn't mean it's an office. A locked storage space that other employees can access isn't exclusive.

Maybe it's his office in the way the bathroom at Arnold's was the Fonz's office.

[Josh]

Maybe it's his office in the way the bathroom at Arnold's was the Fonz's office.

Sit on it![emoji106]