We were lucky to catch up with Roger Gildehaus recently and have shared our conversation below.

Roger, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For 26 years, I worked for Wal-Mart, moving around to various stores, eventually settling at the Corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas. At the time Benton County was a dry county, so if I wanted a drink after work, I had to drive over the state line into Missouri to make a purchase. Whereas there were many stores in the area, they lacked luster; with awful aesthetics and terrible customer service, their only drive to business was their close proximity to the state line. Every time I made that drive, I’d tell myself that one day I’d open my own liquor store and I’d do it the way Sam Walton taught me to do business. The dream of opening my own store was put on hold for a long time as I continued my Walmart career. For the last four and a half years of my Walmart career I worked as the Vice President of General Merchandising International. During this time, I traveled vastly to over a dozen countries every year, which ultimately took a toll on my family life, keeping me away from my wife and daughters.
In 1997, partnering with a former college, I set my dreams to life by opening a 14,000 square foot package liquor store.

From the very beginning, I was determined that Macadoodles would offer customers the type of positive shopping experience I had never had when crossing the border to visit Missouri liquor stores. I was committed to the principals I had outlined for success, along with attention to detail and thoughtful process of constantly evaluating operations to identify new opportunities for improvement.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Growing up in a small town in Missouri, in a family of 9 kids, we kids learned the value of work and a job very early in life. By the 6th grade, the boys of the household all had some kind of job and a good work ethic was instilled from the beginning. I started in the retail business at the age of 18 at Mohr Value, which then led me to starting a career with Wal-Mart. At the age of 20, I was promoted to assistant store manager. During this time, the influence Mr. Sam Walton (legendary Walmart Founder) had on me was huge. I credit the education I received at Wal-Mart as a key building block in establishing the foundation to my success.

During my 26 year career with Walmart, I saw the need for a liquor store across the Arkansas/Missouri border, and after many years with that as a dream, I retired from Walmart, at the age of 44, and made my dream a reality.
With the help of a former college, I opened Macadoodles in 1997. I established three guiding principles, by which we still follow today. Offer the best assortment of wine, beer and spirits. Fair and competitive pricing and Customer service beyond expectations.
Customer service is the most important piece of our brand, which is what sets us apart from our competitors.
Selection and assortment are also key, at Macadoodles we offer 600+ craft and imported beers, over 4,000 different labels in our wine cellar, and spirits from all over the world. Many of these products available to taste at our tasting bars.
When customers find we don’t have a product they are looking for, we do our best to reach out to our vendors to make a special order for them.
Currently there are 2 corporate stores, and 10 franchise locations, and franchise locations currently being built in other states with even more within the coming years.
In the last 25 years, there have been many challenges and obstacles to overcome, however we continually strive to find new ways to keep customers excited about shopping at Macadoodles.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Keeping our customers informed and rewarded for their loyalty is very important to us at Macadoodles. We have implemented a loyalty program, where customers earn a certain percentage of their alcohol sales to be used as a credit towards future purchases. We use social media to keep our customer base informed of product specials and store events, as well as interesting knowledge of various products. We also use constant contact through email.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There are many other package liquor stores in the area, however they very much lack aesthetically, in product selection but most importantly in the customer service department. Here at Macadoodles we follow three guiding principles: Provide customer service that goes beyond the customer’s expectation, Offer the best assortment of wine, beer and spirits on the market, and have very competitive prices.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://macadoodles.com/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MacadoodlesPineville
• Other: For questions or inquiries, call any one of our locations. Or email [email protected]