Inside the Fort Knox of Charlotte alcohol

This is the main headquarters and warehouse facility of the Mecklenburg ABC Board, and I got the chance to tour it the other day with CEO Jason Hughes. Profits from the system’s ABC stores are split between the state of North Carolina, the city and county, the public library system, law enforcement and grants for alcohol education.

The HQ shares a building with a sheriff’s office, so security is never far at hand. Somebody tried to break in once, but didn’t make it much past the barbed wire fence.

Here’s a look around the place.

The county ABC system is governed by a board that oversees its financials, plans growth and generally sets policy for alcohol sales in the county. Here’s where they meet.

The foyer also includes a hall of fame of sorts of the people who have run the ABC system in the county in the past.

But of course that’s not the really interesting stuff. That’s in the warehouse. The first thing you’ll see is an area where the ABC board keeps its inventory of products that are on sale. Mecklenburg ABC will buy a three month supply of things that are on sale, then sell them at the lower price for two months and book an additional profit for the remaining time the product is on hand. Pro-tip for bar owners: You can do this too.

The main headquarters building also processes a lot of the bulk orders from bars and restaurants in the county. Bottles need to have a revenue stamp on them to show that they’re legal. If you want something special, most of the time you can call HQ and they’ll special order it for you. Unless it’s really rare, and then you need to get on their email list.

The main attraction, though, is the big warehouse that makes up a large piece of the property. Mecklenburg ABC has about $3 million in inventory in its warehouse at any given time, and $12 million across the system including stores. The inventory turns over about six times per year.

That’s a lot of Jack Daniel’s.