November 13, 2025 • 32 mins
Tune in here to this Thursday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by talking about the major law-enforcement news he broke 24 hours earlier and the confirmation from local officials that Border Patrol agents will soon arrive in Charlotte. He explains that both a congressman and the Mecklenburg County sheriff validated his reporting, noting agents are coming to target specific criminal suspects, including gang members and drug traffickers.
Jensen then shifts to his in-studio guest, Mecklenburg County ABC’s mixed beverage and logistics director — better known as the “bourbon guy” — Brian Peter. Together, they preview this weekend’s highly anticipated “Barrel Palooza,” an allocated bourbon release featuring some of the rarest and most sought-after bottles in the country. Peter reveals the new location for Saturday’s event, Store 24 on Prosperity Church Road, and discusses how the ABC board prepares for massive crowds and manages distribution
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen.
To be the first to hear about Breaking Brett Jensen's exclusives and more follow him on X @Brett_Jensen!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi, oh, let's go oh, let's go oh, let's go oh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Just talk eleven ten and ninety nine to three WBT.
Brett Jensen here with you on this Thursday night edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen, as we go up until
seven o'clock tonight, seven oh four five, seven oh eleven ten.
That is the telephone number as always, that is also
the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC and guys,
I tell you every single day, probably three times a day,
(00:56):
you really really need to be following me on x
at Brett Underscore Jensen and for all the lettuce and
breaking news in and around the Sharlotte area. And that's
not just a slogan, that's reality. Who's the person that
yesterday told you that border patrol was coming? That was
right here, right here, and I did a whole show
on it last night, and then this morning congressmen are
confirming it, and this afternoon the sheriff is confirming it.
(01:18):
And I had you all this information exactly twenty four
hours ago. So this is why I tell you to
follow me if you really want to know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So, yes, that is what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The congressman came out today and said, Yep, they're coming
for this reason, and that reason and this reason. They're
coming for very specific reasons. Nobody knows what the specific
reason is. Nobody knows, and they have to keep that
quiet for obvious reasons, or the other people might skip down.
But they're coming for very specific reasons. Only got to
be here a couple of days to three days max
before they leave and head south towards New Orleans southwest
(01:52):
to be exact. And so, but I will tell you
that the Congressman said, look, we're here to arrest certain people,
and if they happen to have other illegal immigrants standing
next to them, they will also be detained. But we're
not coming for just the ordinaries. We are coming for
the gang members and the drug dealers and everything else.
(02:14):
So the sheriff can confirmed it today as well. So again,
all my reports happened exactly twenty four hours ago from
this moment right now. And that's why I say you
need to really follow me on X All right, So
in studio with me tonight is a special guest. And
I started talking about this last week. I didn't say
who was going to be in the studio. I even
(02:35):
teased it on Tuesday Morning with Bowen Beth that I
had a special guest in studio with me tonight to
make a special announcement. And his name is Brian Peter.
And Brian Peter is like the head bourbon guy for MACHABC.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Now he has an.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Official title that's all fancy and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'll let Brian do his official title. But he's the
bourbon guy for MAKEABC.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
He's the one in charge of getting all the big
tim bourbons into Mecklimburg County. He's the one deciding, Okay,
well put this bourbon at this location, this bourbon at
that location.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
He helps out with the restaurants and everything else. Like
he's the bourbon guy for Meclimburg County. So, Brian, first
of all, thank you for coming here tonight. I always
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Hey man, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I appreciate you absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
All right, so before we get started, what other than
the bourbon guy, what's your official title with a Meciburg
ABC board.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Official title is Brian Peter, uh Mixed Beverage and Logistics Director.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
There you guys see, I told you it was a
fancy title all right, mixed beverage and logistics director.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I like it all right.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So before we get into the big special announcement, and guys,
if you are listeners of the show, you will know
that I have gone to a couple of big Meclimburg
County ABC events involving, you know, hard to get bourbons,
some of the hardest bourbons in the world to get
and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
They're called allocated bourbons.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So if you know anything about this show, you know
I've done quite a few things on that.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And we'll get into that later.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
About the new special announcement what I want to get into,
and maybe we'll just tease this a little bit, make
people wait a couple of minutes, so it's called a tease,
make people stick around little bit longer.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So Bryant, tell people what your job is.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Tell people what you do when it comes to not
just bourbon, but just you know, whether it's you know,
whether it's.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Scotch or gin or whatever the case may be. Tell
people what you do.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So what I do is I kind of oversee what
we bring into the county, whether it be vodka, bourbon, Scotch,
whatever it be. I work with my team as far
as Zach Connaway. In the warehouse, I work with Terry Pageant,
who controls all the inventory, and then Teresa Miller, who
is the Mixed Beverage director, so she helps me oversee
the mixed beverage department. Zach takes care of the warehouse
(04:51):
and make sure all the stories get their their product
that they need so we have full shelves ready to roll.
And then Terry takes care of inventory, all the ordering,
all the allocated order that we're all you know, everyone's
asking about, and then he also does a lot of
our inventory control.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So I'm going to ask a really stupid question here.
I know there are scotches that can be very difficult
to get, and obviously we know that there are a
lot of bourbons.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That are very difficult to get.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Are there other brands like tequilas or vodkas or gins
that are also hard to get or that could be allocated?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So tequila is on the rise right It's one of
our most popular spirits right now, along with our tds
the can section, those are the two rising spirits. There
are a lot of tequilas now that they're not producing
as much, so we are having some troubles getting them,
but we are actively every day trying to get them,
trying to pursue them, whether it be special order and
(05:42):
so we can bring them in and sell them, or
whether we can bring them in as listed and have
them on an every day, all day allocation.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So another stupid question is is it the bourbons. Sometimes
the scarcity is just because they just don't produce. They say,
we're making a very limited amount and that's the end
of it. And that's why some of these bottles, whether
it's Pappy van Winkle or kingk and Kentucky or whatever
that is. That's why they're hard to get, just because
they just don't produce a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So I think it's production, and I think it's that
they have to produce to the whole world, right, So
these distilleries are producing for the whole world, so they
have an allocation or they produce x amount and then
they have to divide it up between the US and
other markets. So then you divide up the US by
fifty states, and then you divide up to US by
controlled states and private states, so they have the right
(06:24):
to decide who gets what how much, and then it
comes into North Carolina, and then it could divide up again.
They divide it up by how many counties are in
North Carolina for the.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
ABC boards, So there are one hundred counties. So Avery
County which has a very small population, or Ash County
which is extremely small population. Since Mecklimok County literally might
be ten to fifteen times bigger in population, they might
only have one hundred thousand or seventy five thousand for
(06:54):
the whole county. Does that mean counties like Ash or
Avery or whatever, they're really small populated counties. They might
get one bottle of something, where Mecklenburg County might get
fifteen bottles of something.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
How does that work? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So recently the Commission in the last probably five six years,
when Hank Bauer took over, he does it based on volume,
like you said, so the bigger boards do get a
little bit more, but and he does make sure that
the smaller boards do get something too. So he tries
to share the wealth across the board. But right now
he knows that you know, a bigger board like Mecclenburg,
(07:28):
Way County, Greensboro, New Hanover, they're getting stuff because they
know that's where the people are so it's going where
the people are going.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
The Kronkleton is one of my favorite restaurants in Charlotte
and the people, and I'm not here promoting.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I just love the Krounckleton. I do.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I will tell you good restaurants and bad restaurants all
the time here, and I mean I do. I was
just like I said, I'm not getting paid by any
of them, but their bourbon selection at the Cronkleton might
be second to none in Charlotte. Like I love this
select I remember I was there three years ago, four
years ago, and my buddy was getting married. So we
went there, just me, him and somebody else went there
on a just to have a nice dinner and drink
(08:05):
some bourbon. And they decided, all right, Brett, do you
know what year your grandfather was born in I went, yeah,
nineteen oh nine. They said, well, we have a nineteen
oh nine bourbon right over here, and we have what
year was your dad born and what year was your mom?
So we started tasting bourbons that were literally more than
one hundred years old. And that's and I know that's
(08:26):
not MAKINGBC but but my point is that those places
like the Kronkleton have a great, great bourbon selection. They
might even have a little bit of Pappy or whatever.
And so the restaurants that can get it. How do
restaurants go about as of being just a regular bar
to being a bar that has a really nice bourbon selection?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
How do how do restaurants go about doing that?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So the Krnckleton's been around for I would say, don't
quote me on this, but maybe seven years, eight years
about right. Yeah, they were active. Gary was active way
before in Raleig when he had his Roley restaurant. He
came in and introduced himself and you know, they they
told us what their their their image are there, you know,
what they thought they wanted to do, and we try
(09:10):
to help them as much as possible. Gary was the
one that was credited with helping write the Duster Bill.
So he that's why you know when you say the
birthday of nineteen ohine o whatever, he is the one
that helped write that bill and helped get that bill passed. Smart,
very smart. He was in front of everyone and doing
that Duster Bill. And then they place orders and they
have a wish list that we just we just released
(09:30):
a new platform for them to order. It's called ABC
to Go Mixed Beverage, and part of that platform was
putting putting in a wish list and so a lot
of the restaurants are putting in those allocated items on
the wish list and when we get them, we fill
the order. And that platform was based off of the
fact that Kiva, our CEO, had this brilliant idea of
(09:50):
we needed to get more involved with our mixed beverage
customers because Charlotte's a actually big culinary you know mecha
right now in my opinion, I mean, I'm biased, but
in my opinion. So we started having round tables with
restaurants and they helped us build this platform, and part
of that was them wanting a wish list. So when
we got something like this, they put on the wish
list and then we could fill it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Awesome, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So when we come back, Brian and I are going
to have this special announcement and I will just tell you,
if you enjoy Bourbons, make sure you stick around because
this is a very very very special announcement that only
comes around like three times a year. There was one,
I believe in February. If I'm not mistaken, I think
it was in February last year, February February.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And then there was one I want to say in
June or July. Yep, June.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We did a June fourteenth was big one.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
June fourteenth, and now this is the next one. So
this is the third time. It only happens like once
every four months. So big, big announcement coming up when
we return. Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on
(11:03):
this Thursday night, maybe seventy two hour, forty eight hours,
seventy two ninety six hours before Border Patrol comes to Charlotte,
the story that I broke last year. They'll be here
at the earliest Saturday, but maybe Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Again. This is why you should listen to the show.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Last week, Mecklamburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden broke the news
on my show in studio right where Brian Peter is sitting,
that he's running for reelection. There's a lot of speculation
whether or not he was going to run for reelection.
He broke the news on my show live a week ago.
And now Brian Peter is in the studio, I should say,
(11:42):
sitting here, and he is with the Mecklimburg County ABC
and he is.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Mixed drink, mixed.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Beverage, mixed beverage. Now you confuse me, right, I am
the logistic and mixed beverage director.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
There you go, Mixed beverage director and logistics director. Okay,
But I call him the bourbon Guy because he's in
charge of all bourbons for everything in Meclimber County Restaurants
or the mech ABC store. And for the third time
this year, they're going to be having something they call
baryl Palooza, and it's where you have the hardest to
(12:21):
get bourbons in the country some of the world. Like
last year or the last time they did this in June,
they had a Canadian bourbon there that was Caribou.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Mean whiskey that Cariboo crossing. People truly love it.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Right, So some of the hardest bourbons or whiskeys to
get in America and some of the high end ones,
whether it's Pappy van Winkle that just most people have
heard of or whatever. So they do this a couple
of times a year and where they pick one store
at one particular time on one particular date and they
(12:55):
will have their allocated hard to get bourbon sale and
unlike South Carolina or other places, this one's not going
to be a lottery like South Carolina. A lot of
times we'll do a lottery.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And well don't just remember, yes, not going to be
a lottery, you said. But like I told you and
I tell everyone, we do reserve the right game daya decision.
You know, what are the wins bring us to decide
if we're going to do a lottery, if we're going
to do just first come, first serve, how it's going
to be. So we always do do a thought process.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Or what goes what goes into that thought process?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
People, how many people are in the are in the lot,
the temperature the lot obviously you know, is it is
it a good vibe out there? And then obviously staff,
how much staff do we have? You know, if we
do first come, first serve, we can we can turn
and burn. If we have enough staff, we can you know,
we can do and I do want to say, Brett.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Siday interrupted, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We you know, we get a lot of feedback from
these events, right, a lot of feedbacks, and we try
to listen as much as possible to everyone all this
customers and and and take their ideas and we sit
around and we talk about and say, Okay, what about
this idea? What about this idea? And we feel that
to best serve them, that's what we need to do well.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And because I remember the very first event that I
went to February down to East Independence Boulevard, YEP Store
twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
You know these numbers, that's funny. So I go to there.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I didn't know what to expect, and I show up
there Saturday morning at like eight am.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The doors are opening at nine and at eight am.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
There's literally a thousand people in line, yes, sir, that
had been waiting there since Wednesday. I interviewed the first
two people they got there Wednesday afternoon, yes sir, right,
And so I interviewed them and I had the interviews
on the show and everything, because I found it fascinating.
It was the first time I'd ever been to like
a big bourbon release event. People coming in from all
over the state, all over the southeast to try and
(14:44):
get some of these bourbons.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And there were twelve hundred people there.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And here's what I always tell people, like, I told
my friends this, and this is kudos to you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
By one o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Most of those people had already been served, like gone through,
got what bourbons they wanted to get whatever, and there
were still so many great bourbons left over. And that
was the amazing part. Like my friend lived in Formula.
My best friend is a big time bourbon guy, like
huge bourbon connoisseur, and he's like, well, is it worth
my while to drive up there? I'm like absolutely, So
(15:20):
he drove up from Fort Mill to East Independence Boulevard
around forty five, went there, got there like twelve o'clock,
one o'clock, whatever time it was.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It was like, this is amazing. I said.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I know, like I'm not even like the world's biggest
bourbon guy and I know this, so but yeah, I've
become more and more educated on bourbons. You know, he's
the one that got me into cigars ten years ago,
and now I know my cigars and he's the one
that's gotten me into bourbon. I still haven't gotten into
Scotch that much.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
He's a big star.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So with all that being said, Brian, in the last
one minute here, do you want to reveal or do
you want to wait eight minutes ten minutes for commercials?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Do you want to reveal.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Where this this weekends barrel Palooza Bourbon allocated sale will
take place.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Let's reveal it and we can talk more about.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It afterwards after the break.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So last time you saw me, we was at Store
fifteen on South Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Right, you're forty five and South Boulevard where the Hooters
is and the tired stores and all that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So we're flipping coin and we're go on the other
side of town. We're going to go Store twenty four
on Prosperity Church Road. The addresses fifty seven to fifteen
Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Fifty seven to fifteen Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And for those of you who know the numbers, is
store number twenty.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Four and the doors open at nine am.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
The doors will open at nine am, Yes, sir, And
this is Saturday. Christis Saturday, Saturday, all right, So once
again say the address again, Brian. Address is fifty seven
to fifteen Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Like this is a really big deal, Like there will
be people from all over the southeast coming here. And
someone asked me on the way here, a friend of
mine who also likes bourbon, have they considered doing like
other counties where if only the people that live in
Mecklinburg County can actually buy the bourbon And we'll talk.
I'll ask Brian that question when we come back, and
we'll get into a lot of other topics as well.
(17:20):
Welcome back to Breaking with Rod Jensen on this Thursday
Night special guest Brian Peter for the Mclimburg County ABC
Board or Mecklinbure County ABC. I should say I call
him the bourbon Guy. He's in charge of logistics and
mixed Beverages for Mecklinburg County ABC. He decides or helps
decide what bourbons go and what liquors go to, what
(17:41):
restaurants and what stores and everything else in Mecklinburg County.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And he just announced that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The Barrel paloos Up Barrelpool is the big, big, massive
bourbon event.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
They do it like three times a year where bourbons
that you cannot find will go on sale Saturday morning
at fifty seven fifteen Prosperity Church Road Saturday morning at
nine am.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And so I want to ask you, because somebody asked
me this driving up here tonight, that some counties will say, oh,
you can only be part of our get allocated bourbons,
like if Cabaras County does it, you can only get
allocated bourbons if you actually have a Cabari's County driver's
license or a driver's you know, a resident of Cabarras County.
(18:26):
Have you thought about making it where only Mecklimberg County
residents can participate in this?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So we have and we do.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So what we do is for the for the Pappy Lottery,
the big lottery of the year, we do Mecklimberg County
residents only. We feel that with that stuff and how
highly allocated it is, that is a Mecklimberg County resident only.
But for these barrel paloozas, we feel that with people
coming in out of the city every day, shopping in
our stores every day. They might live in Concord, but
they work here and their work is right across the
(18:56):
street from one of our stores, they deserve to be
in these barrel polus just as much as everything everyone else. Right,
some people do ask that we limited it, but in
my opinion, we're here to you know, build up the community,
help the community, and at the end of the day,
to me, bourbon is meant to be shared with everyone.
(19:16):
Break bread over, you know, over dinner whatever and talk
about bourbon. So for these events, it's going to be
open to whomever.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I want to touch on this real quick, because something
that I had no clue about a year ago until
I first met you a year ago and had no
clue about this, And it's a little embarrassing, but I figured,
if I'm in the news and I don't know about this,
then probably ninety nine percent of the people in Mecklimore
County don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
About this either.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
When you say help out the people in Mecklmore County,
you actually mean help out the people in Mecklimore County.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Last year alone, we gave over thirty million back to
law enforcement, alcohol education, city, County Library thirty million alone
just last year. Over the the entire time we've been around,
it's seventy eight years now, it's it's almost five what
is it, five hundred and seventy three million dollars that
(20:10):
we've given back, given.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Back into the county, into the county here in the states,
in the county.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yes, it doesn't go Tom sent back to like that's
that's money here.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That rally money is totally separate. That number is donations
that we give back to the county city, county library,
law enforcement, and alcohol education.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
And that's that's the amazing part. And I'm not trying
to blow smoke, because let's be honest, there aren't a
lot of government entities that are very efficient with their
cash or whether it's city council kind of commissioned cms, whatever.
But the fact that you guys have everything Okay, we
know this amount is going for charitable purposes or the
(20:47):
public library, and this amount is going for alcohol education.
And this is like, you guys have that pretty damn structured.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, we have bylaws that we have to you know,
everyone thinks this is government and we're basically a non
for profit is what we're doing, and we're given we're making,
but we're given back.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So I'm curious about your position. And what I mean
by that is, how does someone become the bourbon guy
at make ABC or Cabert's County ABC or whatever, Like,
how do you become into this job? Was this something
that you were interested in doing out of college or
were you like probably eighty five percent of all college graduates.
(21:27):
I graduated in literature and I wound up doing garbage
collecting or whatever, Like does this match what you went
to college for.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No, No, didn't go to college. I was school hard knocks.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I worked.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I graduated from high school and started working three jobs.
I'm not a school guy. I'm not a sit behind
a desk guy. I am you know, bang my head
against the wall, let's get a done guy. Moved down
here in ninety five and started working in restaurants like
I did up North. And when I got married and
had my first daughter, it was time to hang up
the you know, the bartending, and uh, I want to
(22:02):
do have something more normal. So my wife was working
and I was working nice at UPS. I got laid
off from UPS and my old boss from Sir Ebon
Halley's Helenois, Yes, yeah, I love it. She said, why
don't you apply at the board And I said, ah,
I've done that. I said I'm not going to do that.
She said, just do it, and I said okay. So
I applied again and luckily I got hired, started out
(22:24):
part time and worked my way up and eventually became
when when Kiva came in, our CEO came in. He
recognized that we needed someone to help the mixed beverage folks,
and he again smart, smart thinking on his part, realized
we need someone to help these people, so he created
a position. I was lucky enough to get that position
(22:44):
a lot of it. I'm gonna be honest with you,
dumb luck I got, you know, I was no.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But here's the thing, though, you know they always say that,
you know, you know, luck is due to preparation. Yeah,
you know, and as a result of preparation, and and
you know, people will talk about he's a nepo baby
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
You know, nepotism.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Okay, that may have gotten them the job, or luck
may have gotten you the job, but it wasn't luck
that kept you in the job. It's not nepotism that
keeps someone in the job. If they're not good, they're
going to be eliminated. And so clearly you're good at
your job or you wouldn't have your job.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I hope to think I'm good at my job. Like
I love my job. I love this organization. I love
what we do, and I think that what we do
is important and what we give back is important. And
I think if you look at it, you know a
lot of people say privatize it, privatize it. Well, I
will argue that point because if you privatize it, it's
going to be a lot more expensive. So that was
that was one of the very first coming there, first
(23:40):
conversations that you and I ever had actually live on air.
As a matter of fact, during the Bow and Beth
st that's when that's when our CEO is not for
so tomorrow yep, yep. And I asked you that very
specific question.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And then now having seen the inner workings from it
from the inside, I literally had this conversation driving to
the show tonight with a buddy mine, having seen it
from the inside, it's like, Okay, yeah, you might be
able to go to South Carolina and all that, but
guess what they and they might have maybe and it's
a big maybe they maybe have a little bit more
they can get or whatever access, but you're probably gonna
(24:13):
pay double, triple, quadruple. Where here it's a state set
suggested manufacturer, suggested retail price.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Man, I was gonna say, a manufactured yes, sir, yeah,
MSRP yep. And if you go in the store Meckenburg,
it's gonna be the same price. In Asheville, it's gonna
be the same price in New Hanover, same price in Greensboro,
same price in Concord, wherever you go, it's it's gonna
be the same price.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Real quick sales like they might you guys might have
sales in the ABC stores. Is that up to each
individual store, each individual county.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's up to the distiller in the brokers. Okay, so
they set all pricing and we we abide by all
their pricing.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
All right, when we come back, we'll get into a
few more topics. We're sitting here with Brian Peter from
the Mecklamburg County ABC and they are having their big
barrel polloos that they just made.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The This is like, actually like a really big deal.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
When I tell you, like fifteen hundred people going to
be in line, I'm not joking, Like this is kind
of a big deal. And so against Saturday morning, nine am,
fifty seven to fifteen Prosperity Church Road and again doors
open at nine. But I promise you by the time
the show is over, people will already be in line.
(25:27):
But the fact that right people with Bright Jenson for
a few more minutes here with Brian Peter or the
Mecklamburer County ABC. I'm curious real quick before we get
into logistics, because I always find that fascinating. But I
want to know, so earlier, you said that you started
at mech ABC like part time and everything else, getting
fired from ups and out of employment.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Laid off, not fired, right, that's right, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Like Okay, let's clarify. That's a very that's a very
direct distinction. Okay, So but when you say you started
out part time, what were you doing?
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So I started out part time. I was a store clerk,
so I stocked shelves, I was ran the cash register.
I you know, did whatever they needed to do. But
I started out part time as a store clerk. I
moved my way up to an assistant manager. From assistant
manager to a store manager. From a store manager, I
moved over to the warehouse director or at the time
(26:24):
as a warehouse supervisor, and then from there I moved
up to a district manager. So I worked my way
up the whole time. I'm very lucky to be a
part of the scene.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
That sounds like a career path that would literally take
about twenty five to thirty years.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Like I said, I'm lucky, and it's what fifteen fifteen,
I just celebrated my fifteenth anniversary October ninth.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I mean, that's that's a hell of a movement. Yep.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
You know, from twenty ten to now part time stocking
shelves to now the bourbon.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Guy, the bourbon guy. I hope everyone starts calling you
the bourbon guy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I hope that's how people start calling I think most do.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I guess? All right, so you talk about the warehouse.
I am curious about this.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Do you Let's say, you know you're going to do
a barrel paloozo, like a big thing, and you get
Pappy or some of the any of the other hard
to get brands. Do you keep them and stock them
waiting for the barrel palooza? How does do you hold
them in the warehouse for specific releases? How does that
go about? It's like setting up for Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So we last had the barrel Palooza that you were
at June fourteenth, right, Yep. I went on vacation. I
told you after that for a week, came back. I
was talking to Vernetta and and we started planning out
our year. And so we started this back in July,
planning out this this barrel palooza. So we picked a
(27:43):
date back in July and then my partner in crime,
Misty and my other partner in crime, Ashley Jacobs, we decided,
you know, we started looking at stores whereas you know
what store to do it at? You know, how much
parking do they have? What is you know, what is
their average rings? All that kind of stuff. Where have
we done it on that side of town? You know?
(28:04):
So we looked at all that stuff. So this has
all been going on since July.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So do you just start collecting the really really hard
to get bourbons or do you know when they're going
to be released? Like how do you plan what day?
Or do you just start stockpiling all these really hard
to get bourbons.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So the last one we did in June was we
broke a record with that one, so we had to
start collecting more. Collecting is a very I don't like
that word, but.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We broke a record in terms of sales. Its sales yep, wow, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So we started. You know, we get an allocation from
the state every month and we take that allocation. I
give some away, you know, I get fifty percent to
mix I don't it's not us. We we allocate fifty
percent to mixed beverage. And we allocate fifty percent to retail.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And just so people are oh so mixed beverage in retail, yep, okay,
we split it up, so mixed beverage for people are.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
The restaurants or the restaurants, yes, sir, yes, sir, heap.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And so this takes a few years, I mean obviously
a few months in a big undertaking. And how many
staff members do you generally have four barrel po looses
on a Satday? Because I've seen a lot we usually
have I'm counting in my head as you asked that question.
We probably have about fifteen. Because I want people to
be able to walk around with someone if they have questions.
We have three people behind the register running the registers,
(29:14):
and you have two people behind them, you know, pen
and them stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You have two people at the door. You have me.
I'm either inside outside everywhere wherever they need me. I
have We have excuse me, probably about four people on
the floor directing people, and then our incredible law enforcement
with Chief Stone and Assistant Chief David McCoy, and then
whoever else comes out. They love coming out too, I mean,
(29:38):
because they love being part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, I will tell you this, I thought that this
is this is good knowledge for the people to understand
that are listening right now. That when I got there,
I thought it was going to be like Walmart opening
the doors on a Black Friday, and it was just
going to be a mad rush and people screaming and
fighting to get the bourbon and everything, because you know,
(30:01):
we've all seen the videos. Oh absolutely absolutely, And the
doors open and people are fighting and women are taking
their shoes off and hitting each other and everything else. Right,
like we've we've all seen the videos. But this is
the most organized. It's not even I was gonna say
my desk is organized chaos. This is just straight organization.
There is no chaos. Like they have a certain route
that they have to follow. And what I liked was,
(30:23):
let's say I'm third in line and the person's second
in line stops and he wants to get bourber or whatever.
I'm not allowed to pass him in the aisles, like
I have to wait till he's done getting what he's done, and.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Then I can do.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And you just fall like and you have the certain
thing like a snake trail, like a roller coaster ride.
As you're waiting in line, you have certain things you
have to go up and down each aisle, and it's
very organized. There's no pushing, there's no shoving, at least
on the inside. I have no idea what's going on
eight hundred people back, but inside it's complete control.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
And that impressed me.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, so it's it is complete control. And I think
that everyone at the end of the day wants that
the same thing they want to get now bottle. They
know that it has to be complete control or or
we can't have it right because there's so many people.
So that's why we have so many people on the floor.
But like mistery Williams and I we went last week.
At some point we walked store twenty four Prosperity Church.
(31:15):
We walked it three times to make sure we are
doing it right. We had the right store. We walked it,
we walked the path, we snaked it because you got
to have you have to have the flow or it's
gonna be a mess. And that's where her and I,
she and I work together to make sure that we're
doing this the right.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Way, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So fifty seven fifteen Prosperity Church Road, the Mecklenburg County
ABC's store. That's where they're having Barral Palooza Saturday morning
starting at nine am. And in the last thirty seconds,
is there anything else you want to say real quick, Brian.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No, thank you for having me. We will see you
all Saturday and that's it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And like I said, guys, you don't have to get
there like you can get there in the middle of
the afternoon and they're still going to have great selection
of bourbons that you otherwise can't find. So again, it's
a it's an all day event. Is like to say, again,
thanks so much for being here. Brian Peter the Bourbon Guy,
otherwise known as the Director of Logistics and Mixed Beverages
for Muckamore County ABC. My name is Brett Jensen, and
(32:11):
you have been listening to Breaking with Brett Jenson.
Hi, oh, let's go oh, let's go oh, let's go oh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Just talk eleven ten and ninety nine to three WBT.
Brett Jensen here with you on this Thursday night edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen, as we go up until
seven o'clock tonight, seven oh four five, seven oh eleven ten.
That is the telephone number as always, that is also
the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC and guys,
I tell you every single day, probably three times a day,
(00:56):
you really really need to be following me on x
at Brett Underscore Jensen and for all the lettuce and
breaking news in and around the Sharlotte area. And that's
not just a slogan, that's reality. Who's the person that
yesterday told you that border patrol was coming? That was
right here, right here, and I did a whole show
on it last night, and then this morning congressmen are
confirming it, and this afternoon the sheriff is confirming it.
(01:18):
And I had you all this information exactly twenty four
hours ago. So this is why I tell you to
follow me if you really want to know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So, yes, that is what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The congressman came out today and said, Yep, they're coming
for this reason, and that reason and this reason. They're
coming for very specific reasons. Nobody knows what the specific
reason is. Nobody knows, and they have to keep that
quiet for obvious reasons, or the other people might skip down.
But they're coming for very specific reasons. Only got to
be here a couple of days to three days max
before they leave and head south towards New Orleans southwest
(01:52):
to be exact. And so, but I will tell you
that the Congressman said, look, we're here to arrest certain people,
and if they happen to have other illegal immigrants standing
next to them, they will also be detained. But we're
not coming for just the ordinaries. We are coming for
the gang members and the drug dealers and everything else.
(02:14):
So the sheriff can confirmed it today as well. So again,
all my reports happened exactly twenty four hours ago from
this moment right now. And that's why I say you
need to really follow me on X All right, So
in studio with me tonight is a special guest. And
I started talking about this last week. I didn't say
who was going to be in the studio. I even
(02:35):
teased it on Tuesday Morning with Bowen Beth that I
had a special guest in studio with me tonight to
make a special announcement. And his name is Brian Peter.
And Brian Peter is like the head bourbon guy for MACHABC.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Now he has an.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Official title that's all fancy and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'll let Brian do his official title. But he's the
bourbon guy for MAKEABC.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
He's the one in charge of getting all the big
tim bourbons into Mecklimburg County. He's the one deciding, Okay,
well put this bourbon at this location, this bourbon at
that location.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
He helps out with the restaurants and everything else. Like
he's the bourbon guy for Meclimburg County. So, Brian, first
of all, thank you for coming here tonight. I always
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Hey man, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I appreciate you absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
All right, so before we get started, what other than
the bourbon guy, what's your official title with a Meciburg
ABC board.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Official title is Brian Peter, uh Mixed Beverage and Logistics Director.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
There you guys see, I told you it was a
fancy title all right, mixed beverage and logistics director.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I like it all right.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So before we get into the big special announcement, and guys,
if you are listeners of the show, you will know
that I have gone to a couple of big Meclimburg
County ABC events involving, you know, hard to get bourbons,
some of the hardest bourbons in the world to get
and everything else like that.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
They're called allocated bourbons.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So if you know anything about this show, you know
I've done quite a few things on that.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And we'll get into that later.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
About the new special announcement what I want to get into,
and maybe we'll just tease this a little bit, make
people wait a couple of minutes, so it's called a tease,
make people stick around little bit longer.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So Bryant, tell people what your job is.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Tell people what you do when it comes to not
just bourbon, but just you know, whether it's you know,
whether it's.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Scotch or gin or whatever the case may be. Tell
people what you do.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So what I do is I kind of oversee what
we bring into the county, whether it be vodka, bourbon, Scotch,
whatever it be. I work with my team as far
as Zach Connaway. In the warehouse, I work with Terry Pageant,
who controls all the inventory, and then Teresa Miller, who
is the Mixed Beverage director, so she helps me oversee
the mixed beverage department. Zach takes care of the warehouse
(04:51):
and make sure all the stories get their their product
that they need so we have full shelves ready to roll.
And then Terry takes care of inventory, all the ordering,
all the allocated order that we're all you know, everyone's
asking about, and then he also does a lot of
our inventory control.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So I'm going to ask a really stupid question here.
I know there are scotches that can be very difficult
to get, and obviously we know that there are a
lot of bourbons.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That are very difficult to get.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Are there other brands like tequilas or vodkas or gins
that are also hard to get or that could be allocated?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So tequila is on the rise right It's one of
our most popular spirits right now, along with our tds
the can section, those are the two rising spirits. There
are a lot of tequilas now that they're not producing
as much, so we are having some troubles getting them,
but we are actively every day trying to get them,
trying to pursue them, whether it be special order and
(05:42):
so we can bring them in and sell them, or
whether we can bring them in as listed and have
them on an every day, all day allocation.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So another stupid question is is it the bourbons. Sometimes
the scarcity is just because they just don't produce. They say,
we're making a very limited amount and that's the end
of it. And that's why some of these bottles, whether
it's Pappy van Winkle or kingk and Kentucky or whatever
that is. That's why they're hard to get, just because
they just don't produce a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
So I think it's production, and I think it's that
they have to produce to the whole world, right, So
these distilleries are producing for the whole world, so they
have an allocation or they produce x amount and then
they have to divide it up between the US and
other markets. So then you divide up the US by
fifty states, and then you divide up to US by
controlled states and private states, so they have the right
(06:24):
to decide who gets what how much, and then it
comes into North Carolina, and then it could divide up again.
They divide it up by how many counties are in
North Carolina for the.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
ABC boards, So there are one hundred counties. So Avery
County which has a very small population, or Ash County
which is extremely small population. Since Mecklimok County literally might
be ten to fifteen times bigger in population, they might
only have one hundred thousand or seventy five thousand for
(06:54):
the whole county. Does that mean counties like Ash or
Avery or whatever, they're really small populated counties. They might
get one bottle of something, where Mecklenburg County might get
fifteen bottles of something.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
How does that work? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So recently the Commission in the last probably five six years,
when Hank Bauer took over, he does it based on volume,
like you said, so the bigger boards do get a
little bit more, but and he does make sure that
the smaller boards do get something too. So he tries
to share the wealth across the board. But right now
he knows that you know, a bigger board like Mecclenburg,
(07:28):
Way County, Greensboro, New Hanover, they're getting stuff because they
know that's where the people are so it's going where
the people are going.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
The Kronkleton is one of my favorite restaurants in Charlotte
and the people, and I'm not here promoting.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I just love the Krounckleton. I do.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I will tell you good restaurants and bad restaurants all
the time here, and I mean I do. I was
just like I said, I'm not getting paid by any
of them, but their bourbon selection at the Cronkleton might
be second to none in Charlotte. Like I love this
select I remember I was there three years ago, four
years ago, and my buddy was getting married. So we
went there, just me, him and somebody else went there
on a just to have a nice dinner and drink
(08:05):
some bourbon. And they decided, all right, Brett, do you
know what year your grandfather was born in I went, yeah,
nineteen oh nine. They said, well, we have a nineteen
oh nine bourbon right over here, and we have what
year was your dad born and what year was your mom?
So we started tasting bourbons that were literally more than
one hundred years old. And that's and I know that's
(08:26):
not MAKINGBC but but my point is that those places
like the Kronkleton have a great, great bourbon selection. They
might even have a little bit of Pappy or whatever.
And so the restaurants that can get it. How do
restaurants go about as of being just a regular bar
to being a bar that has a really nice bourbon selection?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
How do how do restaurants go about doing that?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So the Krnckleton's been around for I would say, don't
quote me on this, but maybe seven years, eight years
about right. Yeah, they were active. Gary was active way
before in Raleig when he had his Roley restaurant. He
came in and introduced himself and you know, they they
told us what their their their image are there, you know,
what they thought they wanted to do, and we try
(09:10):
to help them as much as possible. Gary was the
one that was credited with helping write the Duster Bill.
So he that's why you know when you say the
birthday of nineteen ohine o whatever, he is the one
that helped write that bill and helped get that bill passed. Smart,
very smart. He was in front of everyone and doing
that Duster Bill. And then they place orders and they
have a wish list that we just we just released
(09:30):
a new platform for them to order. It's called ABC
to Go Mixed Beverage, and part of that platform was
putting putting in a wish list and so a lot
of the restaurants are putting in those allocated items on
the wish list and when we get them, we fill
the order. And that platform was based off of the
fact that Kiva, our CEO, had this brilliant idea of
(09:50):
we needed to get more involved with our mixed beverage
customers because Charlotte's a actually big culinary you know mecha
right now in my opinion, I mean, I'm biased, but
in my opinion. So we started having round tables with
restaurants and they helped us build this platform, and part
of that was them wanting a wish list. So when
we got something like this, they put on the wish
list and then we could fill it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Awesome, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So when we come back, Brian and I are going
to have this special announcement and I will just tell you,
if you enjoy Bourbons, make sure you stick around because
this is a very very very special announcement that only
comes around like three times a year. There was one,
I believe in February. If I'm not mistaken, I think
it was in February last year, February February.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And then there was one I want to say in
June or July. Yep, June.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We did a June fourteenth was big one.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
June fourteenth, and now this is the next one. So
this is the third time. It only happens like once
every four months. So big, big announcement coming up when
we return. Welcome back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on
(11:03):
this Thursday night, maybe seventy two hour, forty eight hours,
seventy two ninety six hours before Border Patrol comes to Charlotte,
the story that I broke last year. They'll be here
at the earliest Saturday, but maybe Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Again. This is why you should listen to the show.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Last week, Mecklamburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden broke the news
on my show in studio right where Brian Peter is sitting,
that he's running for reelection. There's a lot of speculation
whether or not he was going to run for reelection.
He broke the news on my show live a week ago.
And now Brian Peter is in the studio, I should say,
(11:42):
sitting here, and he is with the Mecklimburg County ABC
and he is.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Mixed drink, mixed.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Beverage, mixed beverage. Now you confuse me, right, I am
the logistic and mixed beverage director.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
There you go, Mixed beverage director and logistics director. Okay,
But I call him the bourbon Guy because he's in
charge of all bourbons for everything in Meclimber County Restaurants
or the mech ABC store. And for the third time
this year, they're going to be having something they call
baryl Palooza, and it's where you have the hardest to
(12:21):
get bourbons in the country some of the world. Like
last year or the last time they did this in June,
they had a Canadian bourbon there that was Caribou.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Mean whiskey that Cariboo crossing. People truly love it.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Right, So some of the hardest bourbons or whiskeys to
get in America and some of the high end ones,
whether it's Pappy van Winkle that just most people have
heard of or whatever. So they do this a couple
of times a year and where they pick one store
at one particular time on one particular date and they
(12:55):
will have their allocated hard to get bourbon sale and
unlike South Carolina or other places, this one's not going
to be a lottery like South Carolina. A lot of
times we'll do a lottery.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And well don't just remember, yes, not going to be
a lottery, you said. But like I told you and
I tell everyone, we do reserve the right game daya decision.
You know, what are the wins bring us to decide
if we're going to do a lottery, if we're going
to do just first come, first serve, how it's going
to be. So we always do do a thought process.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Or what goes what goes into that thought process?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
People, how many people are in the are in the lot,
the temperature the lot obviously you know, is it is
it a good vibe out there? And then obviously staff,
how much staff do we have? You know, if we
do first come, first serve, we can we can turn
and burn. If we have enough staff, we can you know,
we can do and I do want to say, Brett.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Siday interrupted, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We you know, we get a lot of feedback from
these events, right, a lot of feedbacks, and we try
to listen as much as possible to everyone all this
customers and and and take their ideas and we sit
around and we talk about and say, Okay, what about
this idea? What about this idea? And we feel that
to best serve them, that's what we need to do well.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And because I remember the very first event that I
went to February down to East Independence Boulevard, YEP Store
twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
You know these numbers, that's funny. So I go to there.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I didn't know what to expect, and I show up
there Saturday morning at like eight am.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The doors are opening at nine and at eight am.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
There's literally a thousand people in line, yes, sir, that
had been waiting there since Wednesday. I interviewed the first
two people they got there Wednesday afternoon, yes sir, right,
And so I interviewed them and I had the interviews
on the show and everything, because I found it fascinating.
It was the first time I'd ever been to like
a big bourbon release event. People coming in from all
over the state, all over the southeast to try and
(14:44):
get some of these bourbons.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And there were twelve hundred people there.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And here's what I always tell people, like, I told
my friends this, and this is kudos to you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
By one o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Most of those people had already been served, like gone through,
got what bourbons they wanted to get whatever, and there
were still so many great bourbons left over. And that
was the amazing part. Like my friend lived in Formula.
My best friend is a big time bourbon guy, like
huge bourbon connoisseur, and he's like, well, is it worth
my while to drive up there? I'm like absolutely, So
(15:20):
he drove up from Fort Mill to East Independence Boulevard
around forty five, went there, got there like twelve o'clock,
one o'clock, whatever time it was.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
It was like, this is amazing. I said.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I know, like I'm not even like the world's biggest
bourbon guy and I know this, so but yeah, I've
become more and more educated on bourbons. You know, he's
the one that got me into cigars ten years ago,
and now I know my cigars and he's the one
that's gotten me into bourbon. I still haven't gotten into
Scotch that much.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
He's a big star.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So with all that being said, Brian, in the last
one minute here, do you want to reveal or do
you want to wait eight minutes ten minutes for commercials?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Do you want to reveal.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Where this this weekends barrel Palooza Bourbon allocated sale will
take place.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Let's reveal it and we can talk more about.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It afterwards after the break.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So last time you saw me, we was at Store
fifteen on South Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Right, you're forty five and South Boulevard where the Hooters
is and the tired stores and all that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So we're flipping coin and we're go on the other
side of town. We're going to go Store twenty four
on Prosperity Church Road. The addresses fifty seven to fifteen
Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Fifty seven to fifteen Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And for those of you who know the numbers, is
store number twenty.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Four and the doors open at nine am.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
The doors will open at nine am, Yes, sir, And
this is Saturday. Christis Saturday, Saturday, all right, So once
again say the address again, Brian. Address is fifty seven
to fifteen Prosperity Church Road.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Like this is a really big deal, Like there will
be people from all over the southeast coming here. And
someone asked me on the way here, a friend of
mine who also likes bourbon, have they considered doing like
other counties where if only the people that live in
Mecklinburg County can actually buy the bourbon And we'll talk.
I'll ask Brian that question when we come back, and
we'll get into a lot of other topics as well.
(17:20):
Welcome back to Breaking with Rod Jensen on this Thursday
Night special guest Brian Peter for the Mclimburg County ABC
Board or Mecklinbure County ABC. I should say I call
him the bourbon Guy. He's in charge of logistics and
mixed Beverages for Mecklinburg County ABC. He decides or helps
decide what bourbons go and what liquors go to, what
(17:41):
restaurants and what stores and everything else in Mecklinburg County.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And he just announced that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The Barrel paloos Up Barrelpool is the big, big, massive
bourbon event.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
They do it like three times a year where bourbons
that you cannot find will go on sale Saturday morning
at fifty seven fifteen Prosperity Church Road Saturday morning at
nine am.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And so I want to ask you, because somebody asked
me this driving up here tonight, that some counties will say, oh,
you can only be part of our get allocated bourbons,
like if Cabaras County does it, you can only get
allocated bourbons if you actually have a Cabari's County driver's
license or a driver's you know, a resident of Cabarras County.
(18:26):
Have you thought about making it where only Mecklimberg County
residents can participate in this?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So we have and we do.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So what we do is for the for the Pappy Lottery,
the big lottery of the year, we do Mecklimberg County
residents only. We feel that with that stuff and how
highly allocated it is, that is a Mecklimberg County resident only.
But for these barrel paloozas, we feel that with people
coming in out of the city every day, shopping in
our stores every day. They might live in Concord, but
they work here and their work is right across the
(18:56):
street from one of our stores, they deserve to be
in these barrel polus just as much as everything everyone else. Right,
some people do ask that we limited it, but in
my opinion, we're here to you know, build up the community,
help the community, and at the end of the day,
to me, bourbon is meant to be shared with everyone.
(19:16):
Break bread over, you know, over dinner whatever and talk
about bourbon. So for these events, it's going to be
open to whomever.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I want to touch on this real quick, because something
that I had no clue about a year ago until
I first met you a year ago and had no
clue about this, And it's a little embarrassing, but I figured,
if I'm in the news and I don't know about this,
then probably ninety nine percent of the people in Mecklimore
County don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
About this either.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
When you say help out the people in Mecklmore County,
you actually mean help out the people in Mecklimore County.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Last year alone, we gave over thirty million back to
law enforcement, alcohol education, city, County Library thirty million alone
just last year. Over the the entire time we've been around,
it's seventy eight years now, it's it's almost five what
is it, five hundred and seventy three million dollars that
(20:10):
we've given back, given.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Back into the county, into the county here in the states,
in the county.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yes, it doesn't go Tom sent back to like that's
that's money here.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That rally money is totally separate. That number is donations
that we give back to the county city, county library,
law enforcement, and alcohol education.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
And that's that's the amazing part. And I'm not trying
to blow smoke, because let's be honest, there aren't a
lot of government entities that are very efficient with their
cash or whether it's city council kind of commissioned cms, whatever.
But the fact that you guys have everything Okay, we
know this amount is going for charitable purposes or the
(20:47):
public library, and this amount is going for alcohol education.
And this is like, you guys have that pretty damn structured.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, we have bylaws that we have to you know,
everyone thinks this is government and we're basically a non
for profit is what we're doing, and we're given we're making,
but we're given back.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So I'm curious about your position. And what I mean
by that is, how does someone become the bourbon guy
at make ABC or Cabert's County ABC or whatever, Like,
how do you become into this job? Was this something
that you were interested in doing out of college or
were you like probably eighty five percent of all college graduates.
(21:27):
I graduated in literature and I wound up doing garbage
collecting or whatever, Like does this match what you went
to college for.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No, No, didn't go to college. I was school hard knocks.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I worked.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I graduated from high school and started working three jobs.
I'm not a school guy. I'm not a sit behind
a desk guy. I am you know, bang my head
against the wall, let's get a done guy. Moved down
here in ninety five and started working in restaurants like
I did up North. And when I got married and
had my first daughter, it was time to hang up
the you know, the bartending, and uh, I want to
(22:02):
do have something more normal. So my wife was working
and I was working nice at UPS. I got laid
off from UPS and my old boss from Sir Ebon
Halley's Helenois, Yes, yeah, I love it. She said, why
don't you apply at the board And I said, ah,
I've done that. I said I'm not going to do that.
She said, just do it, and I said okay. So
I applied again and luckily I got hired, started out
(22:24):
part time and worked my way up and eventually became
when when Kiva came in, our CEO came in. He
recognized that we needed someone to help the mixed beverage folks,
and he again smart, smart thinking on his part, realized
we need someone to help these people, so he created
a position. I was lucky enough to get that position
(22:44):
a lot of it. I'm gonna be honest with you,
dumb luck I got, you know, I was no.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But here's the thing, though, you know they always say that,
you know, you know, luck is due to preparation. Yeah,
you know, and as a result of preparation, and and
you know, people will talk about he's a nepo baby
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
You know, nepotism.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Okay, that may have gotten them the job, or luck
may have gotten you the job, but it wasn't luck
that kept you in the job. It's not nepotism that
keeps someone in the job. If they're not good, they're
going to be eliminated. And so clearly you're good at
your job or you wouldn't have your job.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I hope to think I'm good at my job. Like
I love my job. I love this organization. I love
what we do, and I think that what we do
is important and what we give back is important. And
I think if you look at it, you know a
lot of people say privatize it, privatize it. Well, I
will argue that point because if you privatize it, it's
going to be a lot more expensive. So that was
that was one of the very first coming there, first
(23:40):
conversations that you and I ever had actually live on air.
As a matter of fact, during the Bow and Beth
st that's when that's when our CEO is not for
so tomorrow yep, yep. And I asked you that very
specific question.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And then now having seen the inner workings from it
from the inside, I literally had this conversation driving to
the show tonight with a buddy mine, having seen it
from the inside, it's like, Okay, yeah, you might be
able to go to South Carolina and all that, but
guess what they and they might have maybe and it's
a big maybe they maybe have a little bit more
they can get or whatever access, but you're probably gonna
(24:13):
pay double, triple, quadruple. Where here it's a state set
suggested manufacturer, suggested retail price.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Man, I was gonna say, a manufactured yes, sir, yeah,
MSRP yep. And if you go in the store Meckenburg,
it's gonna be the same price. In Asheville, it's gonna
be the same price in New Hanover, same price in Greensboro,
same price in Concord, wherever you go, it's it's gonna
be the same price.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Real quick sales like they might you guys might have
sales in the ABC stores. Is that up to each
individual store, each individual county.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's up to the distiller in the brokers. Okay, so
they set all pricing and we we abide by all
their pricing.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
All right, when we come back, we'll get into a
few more topics. We're sitting here with Brian Peter from
the Mecklamburg County ABC and they are having their big
barrel polloos that they just made.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The This is like, actually like a really big deal.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
When I tell you, like fifteen hundred people going to
be in line, I'm not joking, Like this is kind
of a big deal. And so against Saturday morning, nine am,
fifty seven to fifteen Prosperity Church Road and again doors
open at nine. But I promise you by the time
the show is over, people will already be in line.
(25:27):
But the fact that right people with Bright Jenson for
a few more minutes here with Brian Peter or the
Mecklamburer County ABC. I'm curious real quick before we get
into logistics, because I always find that fascinating. But I
want to know, so earlier, you said that you started
at mech ABC like part time and everything else, getting
fired from ups and out of employment.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Laid off, not fired, right, that's right, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Like Okay, let's clarify. That's a very that's a very
direct distinction. Okay, So but when you say you started
out part time, what were you doing?
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So I started out part time. I was a store clerk,
so I stocked shelves, I was ran the cash register.
I you know, did whatever they needed to do. But
I started out part time as a store clerk. I
moved my way up to an assistant manager. From assistant
manager to a store manager. From a store manager, I
moved over to the warehouse director or at the time
(26:24):
as a warehouse supervisor, and then from there I moved
up to a district manager. So I worked my way
up the whole time. I'm very lucky to be a
part of the scene.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
That sounds like a career path that would literally take
about twenty five to thirty years.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Like I said, I'm lucky, and it's what fifteen fifteen,
I just celebrated my fifteenth anniversary October ninth.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I mean, that's that's a hell of a movement. Yep.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
You know, from twenty ten to now part time stocking
shelves to now the bourbon.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Guy, the bourbon guy. I hope everyone starts calling you
the bourbon guy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
I hope that's how people start calling I think most do.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I guess? All right, so you talk about the warehouse.
I am curious about this.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Do you Let's say, you know you're going to do
a barrel paloozo, like a big thing, and you get
Pappy or some of the any of the other hard
to get brands. Do you keep them and stock them
waiting for the barrel palooza? How does do you hold
them in the warehouse for specific releases? How does that
go about? It's like setting up for Saturday morning.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So we last had the barrel Palooza that you were
at June fourteenth, right, Yep. I went on vacation. I
told you after that for a week, came back. I
was talking to Vernetta and and we started planning out
our year. And so we started this back in July,
planning out this this barrel palooza. So we picked a
(27:43):
date back in July and then my partner in crime,
Misty and my other partner in crime, Ashley Jacobs, we decided,
you know, we started looking at stores whereas you know
what store to do it at? You know, how much
parking do they have? What is you know, what is
their average rings? All that kind of stuff. Where have
we done it on that side of town? You know?
(28:04):
So we looked at all that stuff. So this has
all been going on since July.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So do you just start collecting the really really hard
to get bourbons or do you know when they're going
to be released? Like how do you plan what day?
Or do you just start stockpiling all these really hard
to get bourbons.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So the last one we did in June was we
broke a record with that one, so we had to
start collecting more. Collecting is a very I don't like
that word, but.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We broke a record in terms of sales. Its sales yep, wow, yep.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
So we started. You know, we get an allocation from
the state every month and we take that allocation. I
give some away, you know, I get fifty percent to
mix I don't it's not us. We we allocate fifty
percent to mixed beverage. And we allocate fifty percent to retail.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And just so people are oh so mixed beverage in retail, yep, okay,
we split it up, so mixed beverage for people are.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
The restaurants or the restaurants, yes, sir, yes, sir, heap.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And so this takes a few years, I mean obviously
a few months in a big undertaking. And how many
staff members do you generally have four barrel po looses
on a Satday? Because I've seen a lot we usually
have I'm counting in my head as you asked that question.
We probably have about fifteen. Because I want people to
be able to walk around with someone if they have questions.
We have three people behind the register running the registers,
(29:14):
and you have two people behind them, you know, pen
and them stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You have two people at the door. You have me.
I'm either inside outside everywhere wherever they need me. I
have We have excuse me, probably about four people on
the floor directing people, and then our incredible law enforcement
with Chief Stone and Assistant Chief David McCoy, and then
whoever else comes out. They love coming out too, I mean,
(29:38):
because they love being part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, I will tell you this, I thought that this
is this is good knowledge for the people to understand
that are listening right now. That when I got there,
I thought it was going to be like Walmart opening
the doors on a Black Friday, and it was just
going to be a mad rush and people screaming and
fighting to get the bourbon and everything, because you know,
(30:01):
we've all seen the videos. Oh absolutely absolutely, And the
doors open and people are fighting and women are taking
their shoes off and hitting each other and everything else. Right,
like we've we've all seen the videos. But this is
the most organized. It's not even I was gonna say
my desk is organized chaos. This is just straight organization.
There is no chaos. Like they have a certain route
that they have to follow. And what I liked was,
(30:23):
let's say I'm third in line and the person's second
in line stops and he wants to get bourber or whatever.
I'm not allowed to pass him in the aisles, like
I have to wait till he's done getting what he's done, and.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Then I can do.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And you just fall like and you have the certain
thing like a snake trail, like a roller coaster ride.
As you're waiting in line, you have certain things you
have to go up and down each aisle, and it's
very organized. There's no pushing, there's no shoving, at least
on the inside. I have no idea what's going on
eight hundred people back, but inside it's complete control.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
And that impressed me.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, so it's it is complete control. And I think
that everyone at the end of the day wants that
the same thing they want to get now bottle. They
know that it has to be complete control or or
we can't have it right because there's so many people.
So that's why we have so many people on the floor.
But like mistery Williams and I we went last week.
At some point we walked store twenty four Prosperity Church.
(31:15):
We walked it three times to make sure we are
doing it right. We had the right store. We walked it,
we walked the path, we snaked it because you got
to have you have to have the flow or it's
gonna be a mess. And that's where her and I,
she and I work together to make sure that we're
doing this the right.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Way, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So fifty seven fifteen Prosperity Church Road, the Mecklenburg County
ABC's store. That's where they're having Barral Palooza Saturday morning
starting at nine am. And in the last thirty seconds,
is there anything else you want to say real quick, Brian.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No, thank you for having me. We will see you
all Saturday and that's it.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
And like I said, guys, you don't have to get
there like you can get there in the middle of
the afternoon and they're still going to have great selection
of bourbons that you otherwise can't find. So again, it's
a it's an all day event. Is like to say, again,
thanks so much for being here. Brian Peter the Bourbon Guy,
otherwise known as the Director of Logistics and Mixed Beverages
for Muckamore County ABC. My name is Brett Jensen, and
(32:11):
you have been listening to Breaking with Brett Jenson.
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