What It's Like to Have Your Face in Every Walmart in the Country
Pretty Freakin' Awesome
Almost four years ago, I got a message on Twitter from a stranger:
“@LukeAndrews I would love to chat with you about a line of bar mixers my company is launching that we are interested in featuring you on.”
I had recently quit my job as the beverage director of a hip cocktail bar in Chicago. I also said "I do" to my lovely wife a month before I got this note, so I decided to respond. It turns out they wanted to use my story and bartending background (and my face) to help sell a lime juice cocktail mixer under the brand Cocktail Artist. After some back and forth, we came to an agreement, signed some documents, and then I waited.
Photo Shoot
When it came time to do all the photos and videos for the brand, I flew out to Phoenix, Arizona, where Cocktail Artist is based. I brought so many different shirts, pants, jackets, and shoes for different scenarios. We planned to do promo photos for holidays like Christmas, Cinco De Mayo, Halloween, etc., so I needed to look different for each. I've never worn full makeup before, and I don't care to do it again. It made a big deal on camera, though. I had a water person between takes because you could fry an egg under those lights, and Arizona weather is HOT. We shot for two days for what seems like a small amount of footage, but it took tons of work to get everything right. I was exhausted. I was more tired more than a full weekend of tending bar.
Walmart
When I first agreed to be a part of this project, I wasn't sure what the scope would be. I remember getting the email saying that Walmart picked up the brand and that my lime juice bottle would be in over 4,400 stores nationwide on launch day. My eyeballs nearly touched my computer screen. Walmart signed my lime juice and the other seven mixers to a one-year exclusive contract, so at the start, the only place you could get these products was at a Walmart. The day they launched, my wife and I hopped in the car and drove out to the burbs to see if I was, in fact, on the shelf. We walked in on a mission and found the booze section. There I was, perched upon a shelf by all the other mixers and stuff. Even though I had a case of the stuff back home, I grabbed a bottle and headed toward the checkout proudly. I wanted the person scanning the bottle to say, "hey, wait a minute, is that you?!" but I don't think she would have noticed if I was Cap'n Crunch buying a box of cereal.
Currently
The first couple of years are up, and the products all survived. Pretty unheard of for eight SKUs in the highly competitive cocktail mixer field to all make it. Not only that, but Walmart signed all eight of the original products for another year, AND we added even more. There are now just shy of twenty Cocktail Artist products on the shelves. Now we are not exclusively tied to Walmart, so I could show up in your local grocery store or bodega any day now.
A few months ago, the product was rebranded (my picture is on the back now), and I like the new look.
Working in the service industry sometimes has the feeling of not having a real job. I get it. This qualifies what I do a little bit and makes the whole thing a little more real, even if it isn't a "real job" yet. I remember making drinks at the WMU Food Marketing Conference in Grand Rapids, MI, and someone asked me to sign one of my bottles. I felt ridiculous doing it, but the person seemed happy with my messy signature on their bottle of lime juice.
That in and of itself is the job of a bartender-the people you interact with should walk away feeling better than they did to start with.
What Comes Next
With these new products coming on the scene and our territory greatly expanded, the sky is the limit. I have made new friends and now sit in many refrigerators and kitchen counters of friends to be. The plan is to keep expanding.
Already this has opened up new doors for me. At first, I was so worried about selling out and what the bar community would think of it. Then I realized that this is what I want at the end of the day, and I shouldn't care what other people think. It's not selling out to put your dreams closer to your reality. My lime juice even won bronze at the SIP awards last year!
This bottle of lime juice gives me another avenue of income and a platform to stand on. This brings me closer to the dream of having my own bar one day. Should you juice limes if you have them around? Always. In a pinch, or for people that like having a pre-bottled citrus solution in the fridge, there is nothing better.
This little bottle of lime juice being available in every Walmart in the country is the biggest thing that has ever happened in my beverage career. I've been the beverage director at the Bar of the Year in Chicago. I've been featured in magazines and online for my cocktail recipes and takes on the industry. This bottle put me out there and in front of a different market that I usually have no chance to interact with.
No one points at me out of the blue and recognizes me from the label, but if I am at an event, some people have started to say, "hey, wait a second...is that you? I love this stuff!"
It feels good.