No news isn’t necessarily good news when it comes to the Balaton Municipal Liquor Store’s bottom line. In fact, the only tangible difference between a heated community discussion in January over the future of the store and this week is a few months.
On Monday in a special meeting prior to the regular council gathering, the Balaton City Council received an update on how things are going from Liquor Store Committee representatives Randy Miller, Mike Wahl and Dylan Fricke and manager Ashley Haroldson.
One of the takeaways from previous discussions was that the committee would meet on a consistent basis after the MMBA got involved to see what that organization could do to help. The meetings — they have taken place for the last five months — have been fruitful, but financial gain has not been as strong as those involved have hoped. Committee member Randy Miller said some progress has been made — at least enough to stop the bleeding a bit.
“We’re not where I’d like to be yet,” Miller said. “There are certain facts that are working against us, I believe. We’ve got to get people in the seats, and they’re just not there.”
On Jan. 2, residents past and present filled the Balaton Community Center to voice their thoughts on the future of the store, as well as their complaints and suggestion. They all had one thing in common: Something needed to be done to keep it open.
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It’s all coming together, except for the people. If they haven’t shown up by now, I don’t think they’re going to.
— RANDY MILLER, BALATON LIQUOR STORE COMMITTEE MEMBER That meeting lit somewhat of a fire. A few weeks later, a deal between the City and Balaton EDA was struck that resulted in the EDA loaning $30,000 toward the store. That pot of money so far has not had to be dipped into. But, as Miller stated, the store’s bottom line should be a lot better than it is.
“That’s the biggest thing,” said Miller. “We can sit here tonight and say we made 200 or 300 bucks in a month, and I’m afraid we’re going to be here in six months again telling you the same thing.”
Everyone at the meeting agreed, the store’s inability to get back on solid financial footing isn’t for a lack of trying.
“The committee is trying, management at the liquor store is trying, we’ve got clerks putting financial reports together for us,” Miller said.
The crux of the problem continues to be low attendance. With the exception of big events such as a recent fundraiser held for Haroldson, and future events like a meat raffle, Vet Run and Fun Fest, butts are not in the seats on a consistent enough basis to bring in money.
“It’s all coming together, except for the people,” said Miller. “If they haven’t shown up by now, I don’t think they’re going to.”
The bar was packed the night of the public meeting, Haroldson said, but that has turned out to be more of an aberration, not the norm.
“They came because they didn’t want to lose the bar … then after a couple days, it was, ‘I don’t want to lose the bar but I’m not coming into the bar,” Haroldson said. “But we did gain another pool team out of it. We do have events lined up — it’s hit-or-miss.”
Haroldson said it would be nice to see more people coming to the bar for those special events that have been lined up.
“If they do, great, if they don’t … I don’t know what else we can do,” said Haroldson. “I don’t know how much more we can cut out of spending than we have.”
Miller said without big events, the bar might go in the wrong direction.
Wall said food, or lack thereof, is a contributor to lagging sales.
“There’s no food, other than if you want a pizza or sandwich,” he said.
Haroldson said new microwavable sandwiches have been a “huge hit.” There has also been talk of investing in a new air fryer to expand foot options.
“People want to see food in there, and it doesn’t have to be huge food —just fries, or chicken strips, or something like that,” said Haroldson.
Miller said taking on the expense of something like an air fryer doesn’t make financial sense at this point.
Fricke said for now, the committee will take a wait-andsee approach and reassess after what he hopes will be a busy summer at the store.
Russell’s liquor store is in the same boat as the one in Balaton, which is not much a surprise considering small businesses in many towns are struggling for whatever the reason.
