Johnny F

Though it's a little disheartening to see such a calculated, concerted effort to squelch the influences of craft distilling, it's hardly surprising. I don't really think you can blame an industry for wanting to protect it's marketplace presence - no matter how widespread or how proliferated. If you're waiting for a large, sales-driven company to become magnanimous and generous to it's competitors, good luck To me, the real "missed-boat" on the part of larger companies (especially distributors) is the sales opportunity that gets squandered every time they fail to involve a niche, craft company in their portfolio. Every rep that works for one of these outfits has a cheap, flavored vodka line. A spiced rum option. A boutique vodka or gin. An exclusive single malt. A high-end Bourbon. What sets an RNDC rep apart from a SWS rep if it's not having something completely different to talk to a mixologist, owner, or bartender about? Not much. Largely speaking, we're not for the huge-volume, "feeding trough" bars anyway, are we? One of the largest vodka movers in my market goes through 10 cases of 1/2 gallons of Absolut a week, but that'll never be our business. We know it. So does Absolut. So if you're the RNDC rep - don't take me in that bar. Take me into the guy across town who cares about quality, who wants something new. Take me into the bar you never go in cause the Diageo rep has that business "all sewn up". (Of course he won't talk to you about cheap-ass vodka. Try getting your foot in the door with something your competition DOESN'T have.) USE me to circumnavigate all the objections about why they won't talk to you, SELL the shit out of me where you can, and THEN talk about Spiced Rum and Bazooka-Gum Flavored vodka when the time is right. I wasn't at ADI to see SWS represented there, but I'm certainly not disappointed by it. There are more groups out there to educate about what we do (and our true worth in the marketplace) than just our customers.

I don't see what dragons have to do with it.

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction. I talked to them and unfortunately they don't produce the kind I was looking for. However, I did discover www. Swaghound.com and have had a great experience with them thus far. Ditto for Printglobe, which I was using for some things which we already ordered, and which arrived today in beautiful shape. Just as an FYI. Thanks again for everyone's help. JF

Essentially the same thing, though when I think of a lanyard specifically for bars I think of something thicker, nicer, more substantial than a badge-holder lanyard you might get at a conference or something. That's what I meant by "Bar Lanyard".

Specifically, I'm wondering if anyone has a good source for good quality, but reasonably priced "bar lanyards" like a bartender, etc. would use. I'd really love to have something like that in our arsenal on the street, but thus far (for a good one) am getting quotes in the $1.50-$2.00 range and that seems a little steep to me, even for something nice. Any thoughts?