Is it worth the title to deal with liquor merchandisers all the time?
I never had an issue with merchandisers. It was the Corporate office's lack of understanding for the market or willingness to allow us to do the jobs they paid us for that I hated dealing with. They gave us direct store order capability for beer and a budget, then acted like right twunts when we actually put some thought into what we ordered. We were a more upscale, lower volume type of store, and couldn't compete price wise with Safeway across the street.
So we didn't stock stuff like Dos Equis, Corona, Guinness, or such big names. We stocked rarer stuff that fit our whole "we're totally an import store, honest" business model instead. In essense, we paid attention to what kind of clientel we wanted, and didn't fight a battle with Safeway we couldn't win.
Corporate routinely flipped a bitch when they couldn't find a cheap, generic lager that we charged $2 more for than the store across the street. So Corporate got their way, sales tanked, and then we got screamed at all the time because we "couldn't drive sales". A) fuck you, B) if we weren't supposed to make judgement calls, why did you give us the power to choose and order merchandise, C) how dare we actually pay attention to our business model and local conditions and order product accordingly.
That company isn't going to survive.