Minnesota Mega-Stars

Ted and Beau Farrell are maintaining their family’s history of excellence in Minnesota beverage retail, ushering Haskell’s to continued success.

Ted and Beau Farrell (pictured), along with two other brothers, are continuing the family legacy at Haskell’s, a chain of 11 beverage stores in Minnesota. The Farrells grew up in the family retail business and now lead it, following the death of their father earlier this year.
Ted and Beau Farrell (pictured), along with two other brothers, are continuing the family legacy at Haskell’s, a chain of 11 beverage stores in Minnesota. The Farrells grew up in the family retail business and now lead it, following the death of their father earlier this year. (Photo by Richard Fleischman)

The Farrell brothers are wine retail royalty around Minneapolis. Ted Farrell is widely known as “The Wine Guy” and he, along with his brother Beau and two other siblings, is making sure the family retail business—Haskell’s—continues to thrive after 90 years. Their father, Jack Farrell, purchased Haskell’s in 1970, and 50 years later the family has grown the business from one shop in Minneapolis to 11 modern stores around the Twin Cities. Jack embraced wine long before it was a cultural norm in the United States and his sons continue to be wine ambassadors today. 

To say the Farrells are committed to wine retail is an understatement. The brothers grew up in the stores and were exposed to wine early on. “Wine bleeds through our veins,” Ted says. Beau adds that wine has always been part of his family’s life, and his parents often had wine on the table. “It’s ingrained into us,” Ted adds. 

Ted is president of Haskell’s and Beau is vice president of e-commerce and digital marketing. The patriarch, Jack, was CEO until he passed away in July at age 82. The other Farrell brothers are heavily involved too—Brian Farrell is COO and John Farrell is vice president of sales. Total revenue at Haskell’s topped $60 million last year, led overwhelmingly by wine. 

“It’s definitely something to be proud of,” Ted says about carrying on the family legacy. Jack was named a 1989 Market Watch Leader and 2019 Retailer of the Year, and Haskell’s won the Market Watch Leaders Community Service award in 2010 and Best Website award in 2016. “Competition is as fierce as ever, but we’re going to try to keep it going for another 90 years,” Ted says.

For their dedication to Haskell’s and to furthering the work of their father in operating consumer-friendly wine destinations around Minneapolis, Ted and Beau have been named 2024 Market Watch Leaders.

Wine is a category leader at Haskell’s, making up more than half of total company sales. The Farrells say that along with California labels, imports from France, Italy, and Spain garner a lot of attention (wine section pictured).
Wine is a category leader at Haskell’s, making up more than half of total company sales. The Farrells say that along with California labels, imports from France, Italy, and Spain garner a lot of attention (wine section pictured). (Photo by Richard Fleischman)

The Wine Guy

Ted’s persona as The Wine Guy was born through a partnership with a local Minneapolis television station that wanted to create a lifestyle segment and incorporate regular content on drinks and food. Ted began working with the station 14 years ago, providing wine information on air, and it has since expanded to include monthly wine recommendations, as well as pieces on seasonal trends, mixology, cooking, and wine and food pairings. Ted says he goes on air roughly twice a month, with one segment usually themed around a season, holiday, or event, and the other segment featuring his six for $60, in which he recommends six bottles of wine that together add up to about $60. 

“It’s blossomed into a really terrific relationship,” Ted says of the television partnership. “We’re telling people about wine and it’s a terrific way for us to highlight a lot of our brands. We get residual sales from it and afterwards, we see those wines become peoples’ favorites.” Six for $60, in particular, has provided a measurable boost, as the company sold roughly 7,000 six-bottle sets last year, or an additional 3,500 cases of wine.

When he’s not on television, Ted keeps busy overseeing the stores’ business functions, focusing on purchasing and international shipments. He meets with store managers and wholesalers weekly, and also gets involved in some data analytics, to stay abreast of sales and trends. And of course, he’s a regular at the weekly Farrell family meeting, at which all of the family members involved in the business give an update on their area of expertise. 

If Ted is The Wine Guy, Beau is the web guy. While Ted actually created Haskell’s first website in the late 1990s, Beau is now responsible for overseeing the store’s digital footprint, which includes managing the online platforms and web-based sales. The company’s e-commerce hub used to be located in the back of its Minneapolis store, but the family moved it to Stillwater, Minnesota ten years ago and hasn’t looked back. “We acquired Stillwater in 2009 and we moved the dot-com operations to Stillwater in 2014 because that store has more space and a larger shipping area to work with,” Beau says. “We embrace digital trends. We’re traditional in our methods, but we’re not afraid to try new technologies and point-of-sale systems.”

Beau adds that his family uses the Haskell’s website—Haskells.com—to attract more people into the brick-and-mortar stores, as the basket ring is generally higher from in-person sales rather than online. But he notes that the website is a great place to highlight specialty products, especially when they have national appeal. Beau points to unique products like Louisa’s Coffee Caramel Pecan liqueur, which is a specialty release from Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, and Ponche Caballero liqueur, a spicy and sweet Spanish product made with brandy, orange peels, cherries, grapes, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and vanilla. Both products sell extremely well on the Haskell’s website.

“Louisa’s liqueur set the internet on fire, we sent it all over the country,” Beau says. “And Ponche Caballero—every veteran who was stationed in Spain or worked in Spain would drink that at tapas bars, and no one in the U.S. carries it. We brought it in for one veteran and put it online, and now we sell pallets of it. These products take off online but we don’t sell them in the stores.”

Spirits comprise 22% of total sales at Haskell’s and whiskies (pictured) have a steady following while beer makes up 15% of sales, from big-name domestics to Mexican imports and local craft labels.
Spirits comprise 22% of total sales at Haskell’s and whiskies (pictured) have a steady following while beer makes up 15% of sales, from big-name domestics to Mexican imports and local craft labels. (Photo by Richard Fleischman)

Product Mix

Though specialty products have a niche following online, many of the national trends in wine and spirits are seen in the 11 Haskell’s stores. Wine dominates the business at 56% of total sales, followed by spirits at 22%, beer at 15%, and miscellaneous items at 7%. The miscellaneous category now includes THC beverages, as Minnesota legalized them a couple years ago and the Farrells recently added them into their product mix. 

Ted says Sauvignon Blanc is popular in the stores and Chardonnay also maintains a following. He points to Italy and Spain as consumer favorites and Paso Robles as a great value proposition for California wines. Meanwhile, Beau says wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Côtes du Rhône, and the Rhône Valley are influential at Haskell’s. The company’s top-selling wines include Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay ($11 a 750-ml.), Silver Beach Sauvignon Blanc ($14), and Casa Farrelli Prosecco ($22). The company also offers myriad proprietary and store-exclusive wine labels, which Ted says are usually very well received. 

In spirits, Tito’s vodka ($29 a 1.75-liter) is a leader, followed by Jack Daniel’s ($38) and Svedka ($17). Vodka continues to do well, but Ted says whiskies are rising fast and interest in Tequila, mezcal, and gin is also picking up. Beau adds that the company has a robust spirits private barrel program and that it offers up to 40 different private barrel offerings at any given time. Meanwhile, beer sales are slowing as people gravitate toward hard seltzers and THC products. The company’s more popular beers include Coors Light ($22 for a 24-pack case of cans), Modelo ($14 for a 12-pack of bottles), and Surly Brewing’s Furious IPA ($17 for a 12-pack of cans). 

In all, Haskell’s stores carry up to 18,000 SKUs, with wine comprising the majority at 8,800 SKUs and spirits making up about 5,000 SKUs. The stores range in size from 5,000 square feet up to 21,000 square feet, and the company boasts 165 full-time employees. The stores eschew a cookie-cutter format and instead aim to reflect their distinct neighborhoods and embrace the locals who live nearby, and each unit has a tasting bar. Along with the 11 retail outlets, Haskell’s also operates one restaurant and bar on the lakefront in Port of Excelsior, Minnesota, and one deli called The Big Cheese in St. Paul, Minnesota. To honor customer loyalty, Haskell’s offers a rewards program for regular shoppers called Bacchus. The program has about 10,000 members, who can earn discounts on products and entrance into special events by shopping in the stores.

“Competition is thick in Minnesota,” Beau says. “We’ve seen an increase in liquor licenses—in ten years they’ve more than doubled and almost tripled. Large big-box retailers have come in and every grocery store chain has a liquor store. We know customers can go to a lot of places, so we try to offer above and beyond service and do everything we can to make the customer have a great experience.”

Ted notes that shelf space is at a premium these days in the stores as the influx of new products across all categories continues to swell. “Smaller wine wholesalers are adding small, crafty liquors,” he says. “It’s hard to manage so many SKUs, and everyone comes out of the woodwork to show you a THC beverage. Our miscellaneous items have increased from 3% to 7% only because we score THC as miscellaneous.”

The THC beverage space has taken off at Haskell’s, and the stores (exterior pictured) now stock a varied selection of cannabis drinks.
The THC beverage space has taken off at Haskell’s, and the stores (exterior pictured) now stock a varied selection of cannabis drinks. (Photo by Richard Fleischman)

Embracing Change

Haskell’s has, of course, changed immensely from its early days. The store was founded by Benny and Fritzi Haskell in 1934. Benny had been a bootlegger during Prohibition and was a convicted felon, so legally he couldn’t operate a beverage store after Repeal. His wife, Fritzi, got the store’s license and by law had to work in the store to own it, so Benny paid her to go to France and buy wine while he sold liquor from the back. Wine wasn’t very popular back then, but Fritzi made a name for the store as a wine destination in Minneapolis and that reputation has persisted over the many decades, supported heavily by the Farrells. 

Jack was working as a pharmacist when his father-in-law, Erling Rice, presented him with the opportunity to purchase a stake in Haskell’s. Rice had been a key player in the Twin Cities grocery chain Red Owl and had plenty of retail experience, meanwhile Jack had a personal interest in wine but didn’t know much about the off-premise. Over time, Jack bought out the other partners in Haskell’s and made beverage retail his top priority, focusing on fine wine. 

For his part, Ted says he never planned to take over the family business, explaining that his intent was to be a “ski bum” in Colorado after college, but he fell in love with the world of wine while backpacking through Europe and changed his plans. Beau says he embraced the business early on and didn’t spend much time working elsewhere before coming back to the Haskell’s fold. Their father was, of course, immensely proud of the family legacy.

“It’s wonderful to have a family business where the family really cares about the business,” Jack said earlier this year. He passed away unexpectedly this summer, leaving Haskell’s in the capable hands of his sons. “They all get along very well and that’s the key. They have respect for one another and assure themselves of each other’s competency. I couldn’t be prouder. I’m so glad to see the continuity is going to persist for fine wine in Minnesota.”

The brothers haven’t ruled out further growth, though they do say they will not venture outside of Minnesota anytime soon. Haskell’s used to operate a store in Florida, but it was bought out and they don’t plan to replace it. Beau says there are several local communities around the Twin Cities that they’re eyeing for possible expansion, and Ted adds that they’re always looking for local growth opportunities.

“We go where the population is,” Ted says. “We like to think we’re a destination. Not only do we have a terrific selection, we have a staff that guides you in the right direction. We have a company full of wine people.” He adds that the next generation of Farrells ranges from kids in grade school to young adults in their mid-20s, so they’re not yet sure if they’ll make a run for the family business. 

“Our short-term goal is to make sure every customer experience is great,” Beau says. “That’s our biggest thing—service. We will help customers with whatever they need, and that service sets us apart from the competition. Everyone can have the selection and a good price, but not everybody can do the things that go above and beyond like we do.”