8 staff training & education tips + Dry Jan participation data

Darian Everding manages London Underground, a craft beer and whisk(e)y bar in Ames, IA.

Like a lot of the industry, London Underground has seen an uptick in staff turnover in the last couple years, so they've spent a lot of time training new staff on the ins and outs of their extensive beer and whiskey selection.

Darian has found it's been helpful to break staff up into two levels, and has advice on how to train and educate each. Here are the takehomes:

Level 1: for the truly novice

If you're new to craft beer or spirits, working at a place that has a big program can be mortifying. This is especially common these days because of the huge turnover the industry saw during/after covid.

To help with this, Darian has a list of "Level 1" facts. These are things that don't require any real knowledge of beer or spirits, but which can make servers and bartenders more confident and thus make guests more likely to trust them.

Here are a few examples Darian uses:

1. Inform staff what's been selling well. If nothing else, they can tell customers what's popular.
2. Let staff know what keg is fresh or what new cans or bottles came in. Again, if nothing else, they can tell guests what's new.
3. Connect the dots between similar beers (or even better, do so on your menu) so that staff can make recommendations. You want them to be able to say:"Oh, you liked Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. You know we just got in this local Pale Ale from..."
4. Bring in reps to give tastings. If they don't yet know how to talk about beer, they can at least take something—even just 1 fact—from the tasting and talk to guests about it: "With this beer the brewers used [insert hop name] because..."

If you equip staff with even just some of those tricks, they're already in much better shape to get guests trusting them.

Level 2: Getting staff invested in your bar program

During our call Darian took a long pause and said this: "Investing in your staff is the number one way to get an ROI, hands down."

This is so important because if you invest in your staff, they become invested in your bar program and are way more likely to effectively sell your products. And investing doesn't have to mean spending more $.

Here are some of the ways London Underground invests in staff:

1. If there are beers staff members like but you don't carry, bring them in and let that staff member work their magic. If it's their favorite beer, they'll certainly be able to sell it.
2. Let interested staff members assist you when placing an order from a distributor or brewery. They'll be invested in making their choices a success.
3. Take staff trips to breweries or distilleries. It's fun, free for staff, and it's in an environment where they can learn about the products you're selling. (London Underground does these once per quarter.)
4. Give an allowance for staff training, like getting Cicerone certified or becoming a Certified Spirits Specialist.

Check out the interview video for more detail from Darian about staff training and education:

• The New York Times looked at how Dry January has been especially challenging for bar owners this year. It's unsurprising since a recent poll found that 15% of American adults planned to participate in Dry January this year. (More on that below.)
• Staying on topic, the Washington Post looked into whether mocktails and NA beers help folks stop drinking. Takehome: they're a good substitute for temporary time frames (like Dry January), but can actually be problematic for those with alcohol use disorders.
• For the first time in 30 years New Belgium is changing Fat Tire. The new version will start hitting stores as early as this week.
• It sounds like New Jersey is going to repeal its Prohibition-era liquor license laws. Currently only 1 liquor license is allowed per 3,000 residents, which has pushed liquor licenses to cost more than $300,000 on average, with some going for more than $1 million. Despite these changes, it doesn't appear that the state has plans to change the controversial brewery laws it enacted last summer.
• Already this week 2 cars have crashed into liquor stores in the US. It happened in both Columbia, MO and Spring Hill, FL. Here's hoping all our liquor store readers continue having front doors through the end of the week.

Last week Morning Consult, a well-known survey firm, released a poll it conducted about Dry January. Here's the important data:

• 15% of US adults say they're participating in Dry January this year.
• That's high, and you're no doubt feeling it (as the NYT described today), but it's actually a 4% drop from 2022, when 19% of US adults participated.
• Why was it higher last year? According to their polling, concerns about economic conditions drove the uptick, especially on the part of Millenials, more than a quarter of whom participated last year.
• Speaking of, over the last 3 years Millenials have been the age group most likely to do Dry January. By a long shot. This year 19% of them plan to participate, vs. 27% last year.
• But even though overall participation is lower this year than last, this year might hit you worse: this year 70% of participants plan to abstain from alcohol completely. Last year it was only 53%.

The Takehome
Even though overall participation is said to be lower this year, those who participate are committing to it more, so you might actually see a bigger drop in sales this year than last. And given their predilection for crafty beverages, the fact that Millenials are the most likely age group to participate spells trouble for craft-focused bars and restaurants.

The good news? January's about 2/3 complete, so we'll hopefully be back to regular programming soon.