Whiskey Club FAQ
What is the HOL Whiskey Club Card?
It is a card with a barcode that you would scan when making purchases at House of Liquors just like you use other “club” cards at other retail establishments such as grocery stores or a retailer such as Dick’s Sporting Goods.
What does it cost and what does it get me?
It costs $30 (a one time fee, not reoccurring) and you receive the card and a House of Liquors Glencairn whiskey glass. It is also the ONLY way you can be eligible to purchase the rarest whiskeys we receive every year including(but not limited to) the end of year release of Pappy and Buffalo Trace’s Antique Collection. In the future, more benefits may be added such as private releases, private tastings, and discounts.
Why do we need the card to get all the cool stuff?
At House of Liquors, we want the rarest and most limited products (the cool stuff!) to go to our best and most loyal customers. For years we have been tracking purchases by hand to make these decisions. This card allows all of your purchases to be tracked electronically throughout the year making it more accurate and less time-consuming.
How do I sign up and receive one? You must come into the store to sign up and receive a card. You will have to give us a few bits of info i.e. name, phone number, and email address. You pay us $30 and we give you the card and a whiskey glass. Simple as that! Anything else I need to know?Yes, a few more things. By “tracking purchases” we mean a couple of things. We send out emails listing rare whiskeys for purchase. You can buy these by responding to the emails. We sell them on a “first respond, first serve” basis. So if you are the first to reply and request something, you get first dibs on that product. These are the purchases we have been tracking by hand. This card will track those purchases now AND it will be able to track all your other whiskey purchases throughout the year that weren’t related to our emails. IT WILL ONLY TRACK YOUR PURCHASES IF YOU REMEMBER TO GIVE US YOUR CARD WHEN YOU MAKES PURCHASES. IF YOU FORGET, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER THOSE PURCHASES.
What about the whiskey I’ve purchased already this year? Do I get credit for that?
So technically the whiskey calendar (at least for us) starts in mid-November after the year-end releases. That is when we reset everyone’s status. We have still been hand tracking purchases since then, so you will receive credit for those purchases (this applies to email purchases ONLY). Before sending us any questions, please read this email carefully and thoroughly. We will also be sending out another email today that details more information about how we deal with allocated whiskeys. These emails together should answer all questions.
RARE WHISKEY FAQ
“How can I get a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle?”
This is one of our most frequent questions. Every store has a different method or philosophy they use to determine how they distribute, not just Pappy, but the other rare whiskeys they get throughout the year.
House of Liquors wants the rarest products to go to our best customers
That is the core of our system. To that end, here are the initial steps to put yourself in a position to buy these products.
1) Sign up for our email list by going to our website
2) Make sure our emails are coming to your inbox and not another folder such as spam(we average about 1-2 emails a week so it shouldn’t take long before you receive one)
3) When you receive emails about whiskey, follow the instructions on the email to order (We use a first come, first serve system for email responses. If you are the first to respond and request something, it will be offered to you first.)
“So, how do I get the Pappy??”
We create a short list of our best whiskey customers throughout the year. We determine this by tracking all whiskey email purchases, purchases of our ‘Store Pick’ whiskeys, and keeping track of who we see frequently in the store making whiskey purchases. VERY SOON WE WILL BE MOVING TO AN ELECTRONIC TRACKING SYSTEM VIA A WHISKEY CLUB CARD. We compile this list at the end of October every year to coincide with the release of Pappy and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection(BTAC). This list has ranged from 5-25 people depending on the year and on how much product we receive. We then start with our #1 customer and let them pick something off the list. Once we have taken care of our ‘short list’, we then offer the leftovers to our entire email list.
Tips/Other Notes
-This only relates to whiskey purchases. We do not count wine purchases, beer purchases, or total $ spent
-We count total bottles and not $. It is more important to us that you buy 10 store pick Elijah Craig($32 each) than 1 bottle of Boss Hog($500)
-We care about the diversity of your purchases! If you only seek out Buffalo Trace products, or only bourbon, or only Weller and Elmer T Lee, not only will you miss out a lot of times on our emails, but it also doesn’t help to build our overall whiskey program.
-You have a better chance to move up our list if you’re willing to buy/try Rye, Scotch, Irish, and small American whiskey producers.
-We pay attention to who ‘misses’ on our whiskey emails BUT if you are constantly missing on our emails, you probably are too narrow in the whiskey you are requesting. SEE PREVIOUS TWO ANSWERS