Tipsy's in Mission

I went to the newest liquor store in Mission tonight to pick up a couple of sixers. Tipsy's is located in the little strip mall at Broadmoor and Johnson where the Hollywood Video used to be (also in the strip mall is a Kansas Sampler, Chipotle, Pizza Shoppe and Coldstone Creamery). I have pretty fond memories of the Hollywood Video there as I used to live real close when I had my bachelor pad and used to pick up 5 movies on a Friday night to get through my weekend. I was a little surprised when Stella told me that a liquor store had opened up in that location.

I drove over and walked in and noticed I was the only customer in the store. Tipsy's would remind any Lukas Liquor shopper of a mini version of Lukas. The beer coolers were in the back of the store and you walk through the liquor rows to get to them. I shopped around in the liquor section for a couple of minutes (namely to kill time so I wouldn't get home in time to help put the kids in bed). As I was shopping, I started to get the feeling that no one heard me come in AND that they weren't open. The three people working were all in a corner of the store stocking shelves and not paying attention to little old me. I immediately started looking for the high end scotch so I could load up my jacket and walk out. But I didn't find the scotchy scotch scotch scotch in time as some other dude walked in.

A note for new liquor store owners; greeting customers as they walk in the door serves 2 purposes, it greets the customer making them feel good about your store AND it lets the customer know that you know they are there making them less likely to shoplift. Also, by training yourself or your employees to greet everyone who comes in the door, makes you/employees hypervigilant and aware of what your customers are doing. Plus, as stated earlier, it's good customer service, people like being greeted. This is another one of those things I notice when I go into a retail establishment.

Greeting people is apparently not that important at Tipsy's. They were 0 for 2 in my 10 minutes in the store. After I picked out my sixers and walked to the register, I was finally greeted by the clerk. For a new store, I would expect some kind of enthusiasm from the clerk to try to get me to come back. He did say "Ahh, I see you found it" referring to the Budweiser American Ale which was a nice touch. It opened the door for me to explain that I'm not into Budweiser and I felt kind of dirty buying it. But, the clerk didn't really care, and kind of rushed me on my way.

It's nice having a pretty good sized liquor store near the Bull E. Vard mansion, but they definitely have a big liquor store attitude. I'm going to go back to see if it was just a slow night with a bad clerk or if it's a systemic failure of the Tipsy's organization. I imagine that customer service is not going to be what Tipsy's is known for. It's a shame because Batson's is a mere mile away and I know I will be greeted there.

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