Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/205467
Best Buy bounced back from Hurricane Sandy. "As soon as the water subsided, we rolled up our sleeves and started putting it back together." Clyde May's lines the shelves at Best Buy Liquors, where sales are steady. connect to the brand. Both Vugmayster and Clyde May can be called mavericks, demonstrating a pioneering spirit and an ability to persevere against the odds. For Clyde, that meant providing for his family the only way he could: distilling the south's finest whiskey under the radar and outside the law. For Vugmayster, that meant coming back after Hurricane Sandy, the super storm that nearly washed away the store (see THE TASTING PANEL, January 2013, pages 146–148), and left its owners dealing with five feet of water and no power for several weeks. "We rallied back," Vugmayster recalls. "As soon as the water subsided, we rolled up our sleeves and started putting it back together." The store opened three weeks later, but with no gas for heat, and its computer system drowned. "We were taking orders on notepads, coming up with prices from memory and using cash registers we'd bought at Staples," said Vugmayster. A year later, the store is back to full operation, and though there is still some reconstruction to do, it's back to business with the old (Russian vodka) and the new (Clyde May's Whiskey), reinforcing Best Buy's reputation as the store that delivers come hell or high water. november 2013 / the tasting panel / 99 TP1113_066-107.indd 99 10/24/13 9:25 AM