Santa Ana-based Shots Box LLC is like a chocolate-of-the month club—for booze.
The company, which began operations in October, offers subscribers age 21 and over the ability to sample boutique brands of liquor presented in the type of mini bottles most often seen on airplanes and in hotel rooms.
The monthly subscription service provides 10 bottles and product-specific recipes for about $40. Shots Box sells larger bottles for those who want more of a specific spirit; most are $30 to $40.
“The whole idea is to connect the consumer with great-tasting spirits,” said JC Stock, a real estate entrepreneur by trade who co-founded the company with lawyer Casper Rankin.
Serving Distillers
Despite a multiyear trend of boxes-by-the-month, Shots Box’ particular focus is new.
Boxers sell craft brews, cigars, full-size bottles of whiskey, cold-brew coffee, raw meat, wristwatches, and at least nine different “pot boxes” of cannabis-focused materials.
Men’s Health magazine will sign a guy up for selections of advertisers’ swag. San Clemente-based Stance delivers socks or underwear monthly or quarterly, though it hopes customers change those more often than that.
There’s a $20-per-month Brooklyn-based spirits sampler by Flaviar, but it works with big brands on things like global flavors and themed packaging—all gin, let’s say.
Stock and Rankin want exposure for boutique distillers, who face the usual hurdles getting on store shelves and in bars and, “even if you do, you’re up against name-brand whiskey; your cost is higher; customers have never tried your stuff; and distributors won’t pick it up.”
Stock, who home-brews beer on the side, said, “When I say, ‘Hey, try this,’ I say that with so much anticipation. Is [what I made] good or bad?—that type of pride. I’ve made some pretty damn good beer.”
Licensed
The duo set up shop in Orange County due to the area’s well-developed focus on everything craft. More cogently, it’s also where the liquor license was.
They bought a Stanton liquor store near the intersection of Katella Avenue and Beach Boulevard for an undisclosed amount.
Licenses in the state can cost more than $300,000, according to beverage industry reports.
“We had to buy a liquor license,” Stock said. “It’s cheaper to buy one in Stanton.”
Shots Box ships its products out the back door and sells through the storefront and online.
“We want to make sure we did it right,” Stock said, so if people like the samples, “they order the full size.”
