How Much Profit Do Liquor Stores Generate and How Can They Earn More?

Liquor stores are one of the most stable businesses in retail. They rarely fail, they’re durable during recessions, and they have strong profit margins (20-30%).

For years, liquor store profit margins have been supported by reliable category demand. Still, the latest research shows that beer, wine, and spirits sales are taking a slight but concerning downward curve.

According to the Beer Institute’s May 2025 Taxable Removals Estimate, U.S. beer shipments were down about 6% compared with the same period in 2024. Additionally, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America report shows that spirits were down 6.0% in volume and wine was down 8.7% through the first half of 2025.

The market trends clearly show that people are spending less on alcoholic drinks; they’re reaching for cannabis-infused drinks and NA beverages instead of having that cocktail or glass of wine every night.

These changes in how people drink and what they buy are starting to put pressure on margins in the liquor store industry.

So, the key question is whether liquor stores can remain reliably profitable in this shifting market, and what you can do to protect margins, adapt to changes, and increase your profitability over time.

How Much Profit Do Liquor Stores Generate?

While liquor stores remain among the most profitable and resilient retail businesses, the gap between gross margin and real take-home pay is larger than many owners expect.

On average, independent liquor stores achieve gross profit margins of 20% to 30%, with variations by category.

For example, beer typically yields lower margins (15–20%) but drives volume, while spirits and wine command higher margins (25–45%) but turn over more slowly.

However, after factoring in all the expenses that make up operational costs (rent, labor, electricity, refrigeration utilities, licensing, storage, insurance, and shrinkage), a well-optimized store typically settles into a 10% to 15% net profit margin.

That’s the money you take home after paying the store’s bills.

So, if a liquor store makes $1 million in sales in a year, the owner earns roughly $150,000 in net income. 

In a busy, high-traffic area, that number can jump to $300,000 or more because the store moves larger quantities of product every day. 

In smaller towns with lower demand, it can drop to $80,000 or lower. 

To keep a liquor store truly profitable, you have to treat it like a game of small wins where the devil is in the details, and your success comes from consistently winning a bunch of small battles every week.

How to Increase Liquor Store Profits?

Liquor retailers are facing significant challenges with rising costs and shifting consumer trends, but this is also a moment when smart store owners can pull ahead.

If you’re early to spot new products that people are reaching for, how they want to shop, and what makes them come back, you can grow your liquor store into a stronger, more profitable business than it was before the slowdown.

The stores that win in this new era won’t be the ones doing more of the same. They’ll be the ones adapting faster, making data-based decisions, and playing to their strengths.

Now, let’s look at the dominant market trends and map out the best practices for increasing your liquor store's profitability in the years to come.

1. eCommerce & Digital Ecosystems

eCommerce now represents more than 4.3% of total beverage alcohol sales in the US, reaching well over $1 billion in annual sales. It is a growing sales channel that targets convenience-oriented consumers.

There are two different approaches to online sales, and you need to differentiate between marketplace participation (Third-Party Apps) and your own online storefront.

Third-Party Delivery Apps

Participating in marketplaces like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub provides immediate access to a massive, established customer base. However, the economics of these platforms are often punitive for retailers.

These platforms typically charge merchants a 15% to 30% commission on the order subtotal, and as such, you need to price your products accordingly if you’re going to maintain healthy margins.

This is a standard practice, and your customers  are prepared to pay for the convenience of ordering alcohol from an app they use on a weekly basis.

But the end goal with these apps should be to introduce shoppers to your store, then convert them to direct-order customers for their next purchase. To achieve that, you can include a gift or discount in the delivery bag that nudges them to visit your store or website.

Online Storefront

Building your own digital channel through an SEO optimized website and a direct ordering setup is the superior long-term play because you own the customer relationship, and you are not competing with other retailers on your own website. 

A website puts your store on the map, literally, showing up for queries like “liquor store near me,” neighborhood-specific searches, and high-intent queries like “same-day wine delivery” or “best bourbon shop in [city].” 

When people can find you directly, you no longer need to rent attention from an app

This matters even more now that an increasing number of customers are using AI chatbots to inform their decisions. When your store is a well-established digital entity with a clean SEO optimized website, you can surface across the kinds of queries that shape what people buy, from “good tequila under $50” to “where to buy natural wine in Brooklyn.” 

The best approach is to use third-party apps for reach, then move repeat buyers into your own website where you can offer better prices, loyalty perks, promote upcoming events, and protect your profits.

2. Implement a Liquor Specific POS

Many liquor store owners treat their POS just as a cash register that rings up bottles and prints receipts, but if you implement a liquor-specific POS, it can serve as your store's central system that helps you make multiple small wins that protect your margin and grow your business. 

The latest POS systems are designed to improve customer service (they enable customers to create profiles), so your team can recognize regulars and track preferences.

On the operations side, a liquor-first POS tightens the money leaks you don’t see day to day: faster checkouts, permission controls that reduce shrink, promotions that are easy to launch without confusion at the register, and dashboards that show what is really driving profit by category, pack type, or store. 

Inventory becomes a control center instead of a weekly headache. You can receive your invoices in minutes with AI-powered invoice scanning. From there, smart reordering, keg and deposit tracking, and seamless transfers keep stock accurate and cash flow predictable. 

Finally, when ecommerce, delivery, shipping, and all the inventory/sales data live inside the same system, you stop duct-taping tools together and start running a store that is genuinely tight, so you can rest easy knowing you are not bleeding profits anywhere.

3. Loyalty & Community

As with eCommerce sales, there are also two different approaches to building loyalty programs. 

One is traditional points-for-dollars, which has proven to work, but it might have gotten a little boring, and people are often not interested in participating. 

The other approach leans into what liquor retailers do best: relationships and access to products that shoppers love.

The most powerful currency a liquor store possesses is not a discount, but access. The secondary market for rare bourbons (e.g., Pappy Van Winkle, Blanton’s) and high-end tequilas has created a frenzy in which MSRP is irrelevant to the bottle's value.

Selling these allocated bottles at MSRP to random walk-ins leaves money on the table, while selling them at secondary market prices ($1,000+) alienates local regulars.

To solve this problem, retailers are starting to implement tiered loyalty programs in which access to purchase allocated bottles is "unlocked" by points accrued from buying other items—specifically, high-margin, non-allocated products.  

Moving beyond simple financial incentives, reward programs can also deepen the emotional connection customer has to the store:

• Private Tastings: Top-tier members receive invitations to closed-door tastings with wine makers or master distillers. These events foster a sense of exclusivity.  
• Barrel Picks: Involve top customers in the selection process of a "Store Pick" single barrel. A retailer might take 3-4 top spenders to a distillery to choose the barrel. These customers then become evangelists for that product, ensuring the barrel sells out quickly because they feel a sense of ownership over the selection.  
• Educational Events: Host mixology classes or "Burgundy 101" nights. This expands your brand into more than a liquor store. It becomes an experiential hub where your customers can learn and try new things.  

4. Smart Promotions

Promotions only help profits when they move inventory and lift basket size without training customers to wait for discounts. 

The cleanest way to do that is “bridge buying” bundles. 

Pair a high-velocity, low-margin bottle with something you actually want to push. 

• Weekend kit like vodka + premium ginger beer + mugs 
• Tequila + rimmer salt + glassware feels 

Bundles like these feel convenient to shoppers, while the add-ons often outperform alcohol in profit.   

This works exceptionally well because accessories like lighters, bottle openers, cocktail tools, mixers, and snacks typically have margins of 50% or more. They also don’t need refrigeration or special storage, so they’re low-risk, high-return items that help clear slow movers.

You can also use your store as a key marketing engine. Distributor-funded tastings convert a meaningful share of participants into buyers when staff guide people to a specific bottle and pairing.

Finally, you should be on the lookout for local partnerships. It could be with a nearby food truck or restaurant for a pairing day like tacos and tequila, wings and bourbon, or pizza and natural wine.

There are multiple ways to promote your liquor store and build community, and they almost always deliver positive ROI, making this one of the best tools you have as an owner.

5. Product Diversification

The shelf that worked in 2020 will not carry you through 2026. With GLP-1 drugs and moderation trends bending alcohol demand, profitable stores are widening the definition of “beverage alcohol” and winning the customers who still want the ritual, just not the ABV every time.

• Non-alcoholic is now core inventory. NA beer is the volume engine of the category, and NA spirits are growing fast enough to deserve real shelf space, not a dusty corner. The segment is projected to keep expanding through the decade. 
• Stock high-growth, premium agave and RTDs. Mezcal is still climbing at a roughly double-digit rate annually, driven by craft-leaning buyers who are willing to pay $50+ and want something big boxes can’t curate.  Spirit-based RTDs remain strong, but tighten your mix toward no-sugar and clean-label cans as wellness buyers trade down from sweet malt seltzers. 
• Add hemp-derived THC/CBD drinks. Hemp-infused drinks are exploding in “legal-but-not-dispensary” markets, with 2025 sales around $1.4B and growing fast.  Some liquor stores already see these drinks accounting for a meaningful share of revenue, especially among younger shoppers.

6. Understand How Distributors Price Products

If you’ve been in the business long enough, then you know that how you buy from distributors largely dictates your margins . Because of this, liquor store owners have to be mindful of volume discounts, consumer trends, and their monthly budget when making daily purchase decisions

Distributors operate on layered pricing structures based on case-break costs, volume discounts, promotional credits, and time-limited deals that can meaningfully reduce your cost per bottle if you know how to play the game. 

Most suppliers set different prices based on how many cases you buy, and those tiers can reduce your cost by much more than people expect.

If you plan storage well, order larger quantities at the right time, and base your orders on month-by-month sales data, you'll be able to increase your liquor store's profitability by stocking heavily on proven winners at better prices.

“Family plans”, deals that apply to a brand’s portfolio of products, make this even easier because they let you mix a few related SKUs to reach a discount threshold.

On top of that, some states allow for depletion rebates or promo credits that can be negotiable if you know what volume you can realistically move, so you’re not leaving money on the table.

If you are careful with your ordering process and negotiate from an informed position, you can make small improvements that compound over thousands of cases.

Run Your Store Optimally for Reliable Profit

Liquor stores can stay highly profitable, but the market is no longer on autopilot. Gross margins still look strong, yet net profit depends on how tightly you run the business day to day. 

The winners in 2026 will be the stores that build owned digital demand, use data to speed up operations and ordering, reward loyalty with access and experiences, run smart bundles and tastings, and expand into zero-proof, premium RTDs, and legal hemp drinks.

‍If you want a centralized system that helps you execute all of that in one place, try Santé POS and see how much tighter and more profitable your next month of operations feels.