BevMo!

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title: "BevMo!" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["companies-based-in-contra-costa-county,-california", "retail-companies-established-in-1994", "retail-companies-of-the-united-states", "1994-establishments-in-california", "food-and-drink-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area", "retail-companies-based-in-california", "drink-companies-based-in-california"] description: "American retail chain selling alcoholic beverages" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BevMo!" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American retail chain selling alcoholic beverages ::

::data[format=table title="infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	Beverages & More Inc.
logo	BevMo.svg
caption
trading_name	BevMo!
type	Privately held company
foundation	Concord, California, U.S. (January 1994)
founder	Steve Boone
locations	148 stores (September 2013)
area_served	California, Arizona, Washington
industry	Retailing
products	Wine, Spirits, Alcoholic beverages
revenue	US$500 million (September 2009)
owner	GoBrands Inc
num_employees	2,000 ()
homepage
::

| name = Beverages & More Inc. | logo = BevMo.svg | caption = | trading_name = BevMo! | type = Privately held company | genre = | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | foundation = Concord, California, U.S. (January 1994) | founder = Steve Boone | defunct = | location_city = | location_country = | locations = 148 stores (September 2013) | area_served = California, Arizona, Washington | industry = Retailing | products = Wine, Spirits, Alcoholic beverages | services = | revenue = US$500 million (September 2009) | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = GoBrands Inc | num_employees = 2,000 () | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = | footnotes = | intl =

Beverages & More Inc., doing business as BevMo!, is an American retail chain focusing on the sale of alcoholic drinks. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of GoPuff, after GoPuff announced the acquisition of BevMo! on November 5, 2020.

Previously BevMo! was a privately held corporation based in Concord, California. The company was founded in January 1994 as Beverages & More! in the San Francisco Bay Area, and re-branded as "BevMo!" in January 2001. By October 2009, the company had 100 stores in Arizona and California. As of September 2013, the number had expanded to 148 stores, including 9 in Washington state.

The company's growth has not been without conflict. Expansion into Nevada and Florida in the late 1990s was followed by BevMo! closing those stores for financial reasons. Residents of towns such as Santa Barbara have resisted the establishment of a BevMo! store, citing possible effects ranging from small business decline to increased traffic patterns.

In 1995, BevMo! hired Wilfred Wong as cellar master. Wong, a native San Franciscan who is a veteran wine competition judge and wine writer, assesses wines for the retailer and gives them scores on a 100-point system. Wong keeps a blog on the company's website, and helped establish "Vineyard Partners", an in-house label composed of wines that are specially blended for the retailer.

Overview

BevMo! offers more than 3000 types of wines, 1500 types of spirits, and 1200 types of beers. Most BevMo! stores cater to the community by having weekly beer and wine tasting for a nominal charge, in line with state law, to any consumer of legal age. Because the vast majority of products within the stores are alcoholic, one must be either over the age of 21 or with an adult over the age of 25 in order to enter the store. The Arizona stores accept unexpired identification from all US states, military IDs, passports and Mexico and Canada IDs.

History

The corporation was founded by Steve Boone and Steve McLaren in January 1994, calling itself Beverages & More!, based in Concord, California. In the first year, the company opened six stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/BevMo_store_Walnut_Creek.jpg" caption="A BevMo! retail store in [[Walnut Creek, California"] ::

Veteran executive Bannus Hudson joined as CEO in 1997, coming from Procter & Gamble. Expansion into the states of Nevada and Florida led to Hudson and Executive Vice President David Richards closing those stores in 1998. Later, a company executive would say of this period, "we almost went broke. We tasted success and then expanded too quickly". After cutbacks, Hudson and Richards determined that future expansion should be limited to Arizona and California, and that store size should be around 7000 sqft, a more manageable size than the chain's biggest 12000 sqft store. By 2000, the company was making $130 million in sales annually and was the second-largest alcoholic beverage retailer in the US.

In January 1999, Glenn Sobel Management registered the website www.beveragesandmore.com, but Sobel was sued a year later by Beverages & More! for trademark infringement under ICANN jurisdiction. Beverages & More, Inc. aimed to show that their registered trademark "Beverages & More!" was being violated. Their testimony noted that the ampersand and the exclamation point in their trademark were not allowed in domain names, and that the www.beveragesandmore.com domain was the closest analog available to them. In court, Glenn Sobel did not deny that he was in the business of selling domain names, and that his company had never been known as "beveragesandmore". Sobel was admittedly not in the business of selling beverages. In March 2000, the domain was ordered to be immediately transferred from Sobel to Beverages & More! with no fine or penalty—a decision reached by Richard D. Faulkner, an ICANN judge in Dallas, Texas. The decision set a precedent that has since been quoted by complainants in cybersquatting cases to show that a domain name matching a trademark, one held by other than the trademark holder, "is evidence of bad faith registration and use".

Earlier, consumers had been calling the chain "BevMo" as a nickname; as a result, the corporation registered the domain www.bevmo.com in August 2000. In January 2001, the company officially launched the new website and formally adopted the nickname as their brand.

In February 2007, BevMo! was acquired by TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P., a New York- and London-based private equity firm. With the acquisition, Bannus Hudson retired as CEO—to replace him, TowerBrook brought in Jim Simpson. Johnson, a native of Australia, was initially hired as a consultant by TowerBrook to assess BevMo! as an acquisition, and he "fell in love with the company"; by November he was reportedly driving a black BMW with a personalized license plate reading "I ♥ BEVMO" ("I [heart] BevMo"). In September 2009, Johnson reported annual sales of the 1,600-employee company to be "well over" $500 million—a record year. Johnson noted that the introduction of the custom blended and packaged "Vineyard Partners", BevMo!'s private wine label, was a "significant" fraction of sales. Johnson said that the company would be expanding into other states, and that the ideal store would be a 10000 sqft location sited on a corner with 100 ft of street frontage, dedicated parking, and upscale demographics. Johnson said that about 17 employees work at the average store.

In October 2009, the company opened its 100th store, a 10,000-square-foot location in Torrance, California; the second BevMo! store in that city. Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto was pleased; he said the chain's first store in Torrance was "a huge success"

Not all BevMo! expansion has been welcomed by city residents. In March 2010 in Santa Barbara, California, a group voiced opposition at a city board meeting, delaying approval of a BevMo! store. Concerns brought up at the meeting included complaints about the company's plans to cut down a tree in the parking lot, and about loading dock plans that would increase congestion in a narrow alley. The city's Architectural Board of Review member Paul Zink recommended against BevMo!'s plans to have pedestrians cross a parking lot to enter the store, saying that "there's a tie-in between what's inside and the street". Zink continued, "here in Santa Barbara, we like to window shop."

In-house scoring

BevMo! employs Wilfred Wong, an expert taster and wine competition judge, who assigns bottles a wine rating based on his own version of Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s 50–100-point system. Wong, a veteran industry analyst and wine writer who has written regular columns for Vineyard & Winery Management magazine and Beverage Industry News, tastes some 8,000 bottles a year for BevMo!, and may taste 40 wines a day. A San Francisco native and resident who grew up working in his family's upscale grocery store in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, Wong was hired to work for BevMo! in 1995, when they had six stores. Wong made assurances that he does not treat a wine to a good score based on company founders' wishes. Wong reports only to Richards, to keep him from being influenced by wine sellers or BevMo!'s own buyers. Richards said, "we have to give him independence within the organization." Alder Yarrow, publisher of the wine blog Vinography.com, said of Wong, "he is not a shill ... He knows what he is talking about when it comes to wine." Professor Emeritus Robert Smiley, Director of Wine Studies, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, said about Wong's ratings: "I think this is a good innovation and he's helpful to the consumer. It brings more people to BevMo and it probably moves them up in price because typically, the higher-price wines get the better scores." Smiley said that shoppers were too smart to be fooled: "If Wilfred and BevMo fix the ratings, people will catch on and go elsewhere."

In scoring, Wong uses a 100-point system that he developed before working for the large retailer. Wong reports that his system is aimed at the taste of the consumer rather than at that of the intellectual, unlike Parker's system which is more cerebral. One of the differences, said Wong, is that Parker may give a "fruitful" wine 88 points when Wong will give it 92, noting that it may be well-made for its varietal. He reports that he has only given two wines a score of 100, one a 1990 Montrachet from Domaine Ramonet-Prudhon and the other a late 1990s vintage from Opus One. His personal favorites to drink are French wines such as second- and third-growth Bordeaux reds, and California Pinot noir from the Russian River Valley. Other wines he likes include Chenin blanc from the Loire Valley, Pinot gris from Alsace, high-end Chardonnay from Australia and various biodynamic wines. Wong publishes his thoughts about wine regularly on "Wilfred's Blog", hosted on the company website; a forum that he uses to name his current favorites and to recommend wine and food pairings.

Awards

• 2008 The Tasting Panel "Lifetime Achievement Award"
• 2006 Wine Enthusiast "Retailer of the Year"

References

References

1. (June 2019). "Beverages & More, Inc.". Bnet.
2. (June 2019). "Beverages & More, Inc.". Bnet.
3. (September 2013). "Retail Stores". BevMo!.
4. Chang, Andrea. (2020-11-05). "BevMo acquired in $350-million deal as booze deliveries surge". Los Angeles Times.
5. (1994-01-11). "Beverages & More, Inc. :: Delaware (US) :: OpenCorporates".
6. (2024-02-08). "Gopuff Privacy Center".
7. (November 5, 2020). "Delivery startup goPuff acquires BevMo for $350M".
8. Beard, Betty. (September 22, 2006). "Calif. liquor superstore chain to open location in Chandler". The Arizona Republic.
9. Rhine, Jon. (May 4, 2001). "Refreshed BevMo gets back into expansion race". San Francisco Business Times.
10. "The Wayback Machine: www.beveragesandmore.com". Internet Archive.
11. Faulkner, Richard D., J.D., LL.M., F.C.I.Arb.. (March 9, 2000). "Beverages & More, Inc. vs. Glenn Sobel Mgt.". Administrative Panel Decision, Under the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution.
12. Sorkin, David E.. (May 18, 2000). "Chernow Communications, Inc. v. Jonathan D. Kimball, Case No. D2000-0119". WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.
13. "The Wayback Machine: www.bevmo.com". Internet Archive.
14. (February 27, 2001). "Beverages & more! Selects Digital Impact to Promote BevMo.com and Implement One-to-One...". AllBusiness.
15. (March 1, 2007). "TowerBrook Completes Acquisition of BevMo!, a Leading Specialty Retailer of Wine, Spirits and Beer".
16. Duxbury, Sarah. (September 18, 2009). "BevMo toasts $500M in sales". San Francisco Business Times.
17. Mara, Janis. (November 22, 2009). "CCustomers toast BevMo for its service, bargains". The McClatchy Company.
18. El-Hasan, Muhammed. "New Torrance BevMo! will be firm's 100th store". Los Angeles Newspaper group.
19. (September 2013). "Store Locator". BevMo!.
20. Preston, Ben. (March 9, 2010). "Architectural Board Hearing on BevMo Draws Handful of Opponents". Malamute Ventures.
21. (September 23, 2010). "BevMo Starts Soft". EdHat.
22. Wong, Wilfred. "Wilfred's Blog". BevMo.com.
23. Hirsch, Jerry. (March 3, 2008). "BevMo wine scores balance on fine line". Los Angeles Times.
24. Bonné, Jon. (June 1, 2007). "Wilfred Wong / Beverages & More's drinker in chief". Hearst Communications.
25. Burkons, Rachel. (November 2008). "The Cult(ture) of BevMo". The Tasting Panel.

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