Liquor Operations Manager - Hybrid - Edina, MN

* This is a hybrid role out of the Edina, MN office.

The Liquor Operations Manager provides elevated field leadership and strategic operational oversight between the Liquor Merchandising team, store leadership, and liquor store locations to ensure consistent execution of buying, receiving, merchandising, inventory management, and operational standards. This role is accountable for improving operational excellence, reinforce merchandising strategies, improving inventory accuracy, shrink results, and delivering an exceptional customer experience across all liquor locations.

As a higher-level leadership role, the Liquor Operations Manager is expected to influence Store Directors, Department Managers, District Directors, Merchandising, and other cross-functional partners to deliver measurable business results. The role moves beyond support and monitoring by establishing clear expectations, diagnosing root causes, leading market-level action plans, developing leadership capability, and holding teams accountable for sustained improvement in sales, gross profit, shrink, labor productivity, inventory accuracy, and operational standards.

• Lead liquor operational execution across assigned stores or market, setting clear expectations for standards, priorities, accountability, and measurable performance outcomes.
• Conduct regular store visits and operational assessments to evaluate merchandising, cleanliness, in-stock conditions, inventory accuracy, pricing and signing, production execution, labor effectiveness, and compliance with company standards.
• Own the identification of performance gaps, root causes, and corrective actions; build sustainable store and market-level action plans that improve execution, accountability, and financial results.
• Accountable for liquor store financial performance by analyzing and delivering sales, gross profit, shrink, labor, productivity, inventory turns, ordering effectiveness, production planning, and department-level operating metrics across districts.
• Develop liquor store operational strategies and execution frameworks that improve long-term business performance.
• Partner with Merchandising, Finance, Supply Chain, and Store Operations leadership to shape future operating standards and business priorities.
• Provide operational guidance and recommendations that influence district leadership.
• Lead shrink reduction strategy and execution by identifying loss drivers, strengthening inventory controls, improving product rotation and handling practices, reinforcing production discipline, and ensuring stores are held accountable for results.
• Improve ordering discipline, forecast alignment, inventory levels, out-of-stock conditions, and overstock opportunities to support sales growth, customer satisfaction, and waste reduction.
• Advanced working knowledge of Minnesota liquor laws, regulations, and statutes
• May include THC
• Acts as a liaison and counterpart to the Category Merchants relationships with Distributor partners.
• Meets regularly (monthly) with Merchandising team to align initiatives and plans.
• Displays, merchandising, buying, quantity deals needed to meet ad forecasting metrics
• Coach Liquor Managers on disciplined buying practices, including promotional purchases, seasonal commitments, replenishment strategies, inventory levels, and opportunity buys that support sales, margin, and inventory objectives.
• Support receiving accuracy by reinforcing best practices for invoice reconciliation, product verification, shortage resolution, damage processing, and timely movement of merchandise to the sales floor.
• Provide data-driven recommendations and decision support to improve sales, profitability, labor effectiveness, shrink, in-stock position, and customer experience.
• Serve as a key field leader and connector between Store Operations, Merchandising, Category Management, Supply Chain, and other support partners to remove barriers and improve fresh performance.
• Support new store openings, remodels, resets, seasonal sets, and grand openings by coordinating merchandising execution, product readiness, fixture setup, receiving flow, signage, and operational readiness.
• Measure effectiveness of operational initiatives through store visits, performance scorecards, department results, follow-up evaluations, and continuous improvement routines.
• Translate field insights, customer trends, competitive activity, and operational results into recommendations that influence merchandising strategies, process…