I will be at the largest liquor store conference and trade show in the United States

The largest liquor store conference and trade show in the United States is happening July 18th-July 20th 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. I will be at Booth # 551. Stop by, say "hi", take a look at the latest in liquor store point of sale technology, and pick up a free box cutter!

The End of Heartland LiquorPOS?

 

Rumors about Heartland dropping their LiquorPOS product have been around for 2 years now. Recently, several Heartland team members have shared privately that a formal announcement about the end of LiquorPOS could be coming shortly.

So, what does that mean for liquor stores who currently use LiquorPOS in their stores? Like other software programs that have gone "end of life" (like Windows 10 and Microsoft Dynamics RMS Store Operations point of sale), we need to look at the most likely outcome and recommended actions that should be taken.

Likely outcomes:

1. Heartland just flat out discontinues LiquorPOS. There will likely be a end of life support period of up to one year to allow users of LiquorPOS to find new point of sale (POS) software.
2. Heartland sells LiquorPOS to another company. This introduces more questions than answers regarding support, software updates, who can offer merchant services with LiquorPOS,  and, if the new company has their own POS solution, will LiquorPOS users have to migrate to a new POS system?
3. Heartland returns LiquorPOS to the original owner. LiquorPOS was originally not a Heartland product so it is possible that the original team behind LiquorPOS may take it back from Heartland. While this would provide a clearer support path, questions still remaining regarding updates to the software, ongoing support costs, and options for integrated merchant service.

Recommended Actions:

1. Ride it out and see what happens. Pretty big gamble and very high risk to not have a plan should outcome #1 happen. Do you have the time, energy and budget to find a new POS system under a deadline? Would at least doing some pre-planning be smart from a business perspective?
2. Watchful waiting but have a plan in place so you are ready to pull the trigger regarding any of the likely outcomes.
3. Take action now and not have to deal with waiting on any of the possible outcomes (none of the possible outcomes sound all that great anyway given the age and lack of recent updates to LiquorPOS). 

If you are in the Recommended Actions Options #2 and #3 camp:

Start searching now for a liquor store specific POS system. Liquor store specific means that the POS system has all of the unique features and functions that liquor stores require like the following (you can use the list below as a checklist and then zero in on the top 3 candidates to get demos and proposals):

1. Age Verification
2. Parent/Child or Case/Lot Inventory Tracking
3. Deal Planner and Bridge Buying
4. Supplier Integration
5. FinTech Integration
6. Restock Rocket
7. Smart Alerts
8. State Specific Sales Tax (especially if you are in a state with a spirit volume tax)
9. State Specific Reports  
10. Bottle Deposits
11. Wholesale Functions and State Specific Wholesale Reporting
12. POS is Designed ONLY for Beer, Wine and Liquor Stores 
13. Delivery Integrations (if allowed in your state)
14. Product Ranking
15. Dog Inventory Reporting
16. Physical Inventory Count Module
17. Keg Rentals (if you do this)
18. THC Product Sale Compliance  
19. Shelf Tag/Price Tag Printing
20. 24/7 Support
21. Supplier Purchase Planning
22. Multi-Store Capabilities (if you own multiple liquor stores) 
23. Market Basket Reporting
24. Customer Loyalty Program and Gift Cards (of allowed by state law)
25. Role Based Security (keep control over what your employees can and can't do) 

 

 

 

 

Alcohol delivery service Drizly hit by data breach affecting 2.4 million accounts

 

RITE "Bottoms Up" industry news Keeping you up to date on everything BWL Dear Kevin, For over 15 years we have been on the edge of relevant information and offerings within the Retail Alcohol Industry to help guide your interests and decisions. In testament to this, we received the 2019 "Friend of the Retailer" award from MN's Licensed Beverage Association (1st POS company to win the award). The Industry is changing and we are changing right along side it to better suit your needs (scroll down to reminder about RMS end of life). *If you think a friend may benefit from this content, feel free to forward it to them. Sales at Utah’s state-run liquor stores top half-billion dollars a year for first time Read More Here (estimated read time 2-3 minutes) "Sales at Utah’s state-run liquor stores topped a half billion dollars in a year for the first time ever.Numbers released by the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control this week show the state took in $500,324,118 in fiscal 2020, which ended June 30. Sales were up even though the overall number of bottles sold for the year was down 3.5 million or about 7% from last year. Moving heavy beer to grocery stores last November might account for the drop, officials said." Alcohol delivery service Drizly hit by data breach affecting 2.4 million accounts Read More Here (estimated read time 1 minute) "Drizly confirmed it suffered a massive breach earlier this month, saying data from 2.5 million accounts may have been stolen. The alcohol delivery service confirmed Wednesday that a hacker acquired some of its customer data, including emails, date-of-birth information, passwords, and in some cases, addresses. The breach was first reported by TechCrunch." Coca Col Re-enters the Booze Business Read More Here estimated read time 3 minutes "Look out liquor world: Coca-Cola is getting back into the booze business. And unlike 40 years ago, this time the soda giant is playing to its strength.Coca-Cola announced last week that it will create a Topo Chico hard seltzer, which it plans to debut in Latin American countries this year. The plan is to launch the cans into the US market in 2021. This comes a year after Coke successfully dipped its toes back in the liquor market for the first time in decades, introducing a lemon-flavored canned cocktail called Remondo in Japan.” Best of the Rest Is it illegal to drink your own alcohol on an airplane? Report Shows Pa. Liquor Sales Lagging Other Control States Gov Cuomo Signs Legislation Authorizing the Sale of Ice Cream Made with Liquor Parents with children forced to do school at home are drinking more Back Barn Brewing unveils Heritage 1820 beer for Rotterdam Bicentennial Premium Mixers Ready To Break Out As Cocktails-At-Home Trend Gains Steam NY State Liquor Authority rejects plan to open Total Wine store in College Point Liquor store owners weigh delivery services versus in-store pickup Odell Brewing Co. in Fort Collins launches canned wine project RMS goes End of Life in one short year from now This may be an opportune time for you to evaluate CloudRetailer. A year will go by very quickly Tools to keep you viable and in business (curbside module for example) Built by people who know RMS inside and out "Very happy with the switch to CloudRetailer. It has been a huge upgrade in every way. Anyone who is still using RMS should move to CloudRetailer." - N. Beers Do you have comments, suggestions, or feedback about this newsletter? Questions about liquor store point of sale systems - including the low cost replacement program for Microsoft Dynamics RMS, or other legacy POS systems? Then please contact RITE's sales and marketing team at 888-267-7483 or sales@rite.us Retail Information Technology Enterprises (888) 267-RITE (7483) Fax: (320) 230-1795 Email Us Visit Our Website  ‌  ‌  ‌

Retail Information Technology Enterprises | 1001 2nd Street South, Suite 100, Sartell, MN 56377

Cloud Retailer POS for Beer/Wine/Liquor Stores

Over the last few years, the folks at Cloud Retailer have been working on including specific features and functions within the Cloud Retailer point of sale software that are vertical specific. Recent examples include the following retail verticals:

• Gun and Archery Stores
• Furniture Stores
• Convenience Stores (no fuel sales)
• Cannabis Retail
• Corner Markets and Specialty Food Stores
• Mobile Retailers
• Trampoline Parks
• Gift Shops and Tourist Attractions
• and more on the way...

This post will focus on the Beer, Wine and Liquor Store vertical.  There is a lot that Cloud Retailer offers for the Beer, Wine and Liquor retailers.  Specific examples include:

Age Verification:

Automated Cash Discounts:

Supplier Purchase Planning:

Unit of Measure:

Detailed Product Attributes:

If you own or operate a beer, wine or liquor store, it is worth taking a look at Cloud Retailer. Free trial versions are available by contacting me at 208-340-5632 or kevinantosh@gmail.com (US and Canada only please),.

How Supplier Purchase Planning Works in the Cloud Retailer Software

A quick video overview of how supplier purchase planning works within the Cloud Retailer point of sale software.

A big time saver for most retailers!

Please contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632 with any questions.

How to Directly Enter Product Cost in Cloud Retailer

Based on multiple onsite visits with retailers in 5 different states, an overview of how you can directly enter product cost within the Cloud Retailer point of sale software. Very helpful for any retailer who has "one of" products (special orders or products that will be ordered and sold once and never ordered again):

As always, you can reach me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632 for more information or general retail point of sale related questions.