Top 100 Retailers: Taking the Helm at Wyatt’s

Wyatt's Wet Goods beverage dynamics top 100 retailers magazine feature article
Wyatt's Wet Goods in Longmont, CO.

Our June issue of Beverage Dynamics magazine recognized the Top 100 Retailers, including Wyatt’s Wet Goods of Longmont, CO. These beverage alcohol retailers represent the best of the best in the industry.

Wyatt’s is a full-service, independent wine, liquor and beer store founded by Dennis Dinsmore in 2015. It has 25,000 square feet, and more than 13,000 SKUs. As part of Coloradoans for Safety and the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association, as well as the Wine & Spirits Guild of America and American Beverage Licensees, Wyatt’s is quite active in the industry.

Mat Dinsmore, Dennis’s son, recently took over management of the store, keeping it under family leadership while still making changes to suit an evolving customer base and workforce. The store takes a proactive approach to employee wellbeing and work culture as well, offering a 401k, flexible PTO and limited health insurance to workers.

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“In the last twelve months, we have refocused on staff training and staff retention,” Dinsmore says. “This is one of our largest areas of focus as the labor market is tight. We also realize our training shifted over the past 24 months due to Covid. Really, the last two and a half years have felt like a week. The big struggle for us has been finding out what the new normal is going to be.”

“We still have Covid protocols in place,” he continues. “With our team, we’ve really focused on people and trying to take care of the people who’ve stayed. We’re able to get more involved in the community now, and we’re able to start partnering with some local on-premise businesses again. We’ve gotten involved with nonprofits and continue to manage our relationship with both customers and with wholesalers.”

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Wyatt’s has kept their Covid protocols, just one change among many that has shaped the store in the past few years. “We’re all still reeling a little bit,” says Dinsmore. “In-store, we still have spit-guards and we’re still doing curbside and delivery. It’s not what it was two years ago, but definitely not what it was three years ago. I think a lot of these things are here to stay for the foreseeable future.”

“Another thing,” Dinsmore adds, “is that the supply chain is still messed up. Even today, we face a lot of issues.”

When asked about the process of bringing Wyatt’s under new leadership, Dinsmore asserts that not much has changed, at least for the employees. “In many ways, the leadership is not a whole lot different because I am my dad’s son. My dad is still coming in, making sure we don’t go too far off the rails. Yes, some things have changed, but the quality of service and products remain the same.”

Customers can rely on Wyatt’s to provide a successful shopping experience, because of their top-tier service and selection. But success for the store itself is a more complicated matter.

“It’s always a moving target,” Dinsmore says. “Constant change is the one thing we can all agree upon, whether that’s product mix, your talent pool, your customer interactions. On the other hand, you have to look at dollars and cents, customer counts, margins. It’s not as easy as Ôdo you run a profitable company?’ because you’ve got shareholders in the community. You’ve got your nonprofits and wholesalers you work with as well.”

Most often, stores aren’t just beholden to their bottom line. That bottom line is informed by diverse variables that are all affected by the community. “It’s really a broad spectrum of trying to do the best job you can for a very diverse group of shareholders,” Dinsmore says. “At the same time, you have to be profitable and be able to drive the engine forward.”

Jamie Stafford is the editorial associate at Beverage Dynamics. Reach her at jstafford@epgacceleration.com. Read her recent piece, Why 2022 is the Summer of RTDs.

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