Green’s: The Evolution of Family Business
Green’s Beverage Stores is a unique beverage alcohol retail chain that spans two states and four generations of family leadership.
The company started nearly 90 years ago. In 1937, Founder Leonard Greenbaum launched Green’s Package Store on a street-front location on Ponce De Leon Ave. in Midtown Atlanta. “He was a very smart guy,” says Lock Reddic, Greenbaum’s grandson-in-law, and current CEO of the family business. “He had a boatload of common sense. He had grocery as well, and he ran his business through common sense practices.”
It worked. For years, Greenbaum successfully operated this initial location as a standalone store. Then in the 1960s, Greenbaum’s son Jerry joined the family business, after serving in the military.
“When my father-in-law came in, he put us on steroids,” Reddic says. “He was an entrepreneur. He found ways to expand the business.”
This meant growing the number of stores significantly, and into other markets, including another state. In 1977, while visiting Myrtle Beach, SC, Jerry noticed that the area lacked a large-format liquor store. He believed that he could meet that need. Just before Christmas of that year, Green’s expanded into South Carolina.
The larger location quickly earned a loyal customer base. The Myrtle Beach spot became the leading volume store in the entire state. Tourists and locals alike enjoyed what was, at the time, the biggest selection of liquor, beer and wine around.
Jerry continued to develop the family business, entering different industries. A true entrepreneur, he had a keen eye for consumer need. As a lifelong foodie who loved eating out, he observed in the 1980s that Columbia, SC had virtually no dining establishments. So he opened California Dreaming, a restaurant based on a spot Jerry enjoyed in Atlanta. (He even hired the head of kitchen from that inspirational Georgia business.)
Again, his hunch proved on point. California Dreaming thrived in South Carolina. Helping fuel the restaurant’s success was Jerry working there five days a week for the first year, Reddic recalls. This is a testament to the effort and dedication required to turn one’s entrepreneurial spirit into physical reality.
“He fell in love with that place and kept opening new restaurants,” Reddic says. Today, California Dreaming and the other on-premise businesses continue to operate as a separate business, with family involvement.
As he grew his restaurant company, what did Jerry think of his alcohol retail chain?
“He always felt like the beverage stores had an expiration date around the year 2000,” says Reddic, who became president of Green’s in 1996. “He always felt that nothing lasts forever, and eventually competition from grocery or big stores would come in. So he had a very set date in his mind, 2000, to sunset the beverage stores.”
Beyond the Sunset
Jerry was correct about those future risks posed by additional competition. Grocery has continued to seek expanded alcohol sales, while Big Box corporate stores have opened near Green’s locations.
But the family business has hardly faded away, even when faced by those competitive challenges.
“We were really fortunate when, in 2003 as Total Wine came in, Jerry was surprisingly supportive of me aggressively spending money in defending our market share,” says Reddic. “He said, ‘You do what you need to do. The gloves are off’.”
“That was such a great thing to hear as an employee, as a person in the business,” he adds. “That was one of the great leadership moments in the history of our company. That was a great leader thing to say. He was saying, ‘You can do this. It’s worth spending the money so that we can stick around’.”
And stick around they did. Today, Green’s has two traditional stores in Atlanta — Midtown/Brookhaven and Ponce De Leon — and another in the area, The Tap on Ponce, that sells beer and wine by the growler.
“We have 50 taps there,” Reddic says. “It’s in a really cool industrial complex on the Atlanta Beltway.”
In South Carolina, Green’s operates four traditional locations in Columbus and Myrtle Beach. The company also counts a fifth spot, adjacent to a Frugal MacDoogal, that only sells beer and wine.
Running a family beverage alcohol retail business in two different states presents unique challenges.
“Obviously the laws and regulations are different in both states,” Reddic says. “It can be difficult when you’re dealing with customers who shop at different markets with different laws.”
For instance, Reddic points to state regulations that differ about where he can place Ready-to-Drink beverages. In Georgia, he can stock wine RTDs in the wine section, and spirits RTDs with the spirits. This makes for a natural shopping pattern, helping customers find what they want while encouraging trial within similar categories. However, in South Carolina, the stores cannot stock RTDs in this convenient manner, which means a lost marketing opportunity based solely on the location.
Another headache across state lines is “dealing with competition that’s different in each state, that’s much more of a challenge,” Reddic reflects.
“Historically, we’re all selling the same things to the same human beings,” he adds. “It’s how you sell the same things differently that really matters.”
Shifting Retail Landscape
Sales in our industry, of course, remain in a period of correction. Changes in consumer tastes, especially younger LDA customers, have led to a dip in alcohol consumption, practically across the board. Just about the only category left untouched by this pullback is RTDs, which remain popular for their flavor-forward nature and convenience.
What does Reddic think of this unusual time for the beverage alcohol retail business? “I think this period of transition will be more permanent that some people believe,” he says. “Especially with THC.”
By which Reddic means cannabis beverages. In our current difficult market, THC drinks — often produced by local breweries — have been a rare bright spot. “We sell a lot of it,” Reddic says.
Risks remain in this budding category. “I think the amount of knowledge in the general populace [about THC drinks] is still in its infancy,” Reddic says.
To his point, many consumers do not know the difference between a 3-mg, 5-mg, and 10-mg cannabis beverage. (Obviously that is quite the variance in terms of psychotropic potency and how long the intoxicating effect will last.) Compare this knowledge gap with the majority of drinkers who can understand the difference between a 4%-ABV lager and a 10%-ABV stout. Or an 80-proof bourbon versus a 120-proof cask strength single barrel.
However, as more consumers enter this category and explore around, they will learn how THC drinks work and what milligram level is right for them.
“And as that consumer knowledge grows, I see this category getting bigger and bigger,” Reddic says. “And I don’t think the U.S. government is going to outlaw it.”
Reddic references a fresh threat to the industry: The potential closure of the loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill that permitted hemp-derived cannabis drinks in the first place. As part of legislation passed to reopen the U.S. government during its most recent shutdown, U.S. politicians scheduled loophole closure for November of this year. That would send THC beverages back to the states, and effectively ban producers from shipping products across state lines.
While no doubt an existential threat for this category, there has been positive movement in Washington DC. Lobbyists and industry professionals have appealed Congress for a delay and for proper regulations.
To be clear: Anyone who operates seriously and legitimately in the cannabis drink space wants appropriate federal laws to govern this industry. If leaders in our Capitol want inspiration for what perceptive, pro-business regulations might look like, perhaps they should look down the Eastern Seaboard to South Carolina.
“There’s legislation here that we’re about to get through,” Reddic says. “It hasn’t faced any obstacles yet.” The proposed bill would limit THC drinks in grocery and similar channels to 5 mg. Liquor stores could sell 6 to 10 mgs. Notably, and critically, the proposed law includes exception for 750-ml. bottles, which can have 10 mg per servings, with 17 servings per container.
This comes at a good time, as these products “are a game changer,” Reddic says. “For customers who are 21 to 30 years old, they are leading a completely different lifestyle. They’re more focused on their health. They don’t have the time or the interest in having a hangover. A lot of them are up and at the gym every morning at 7 or 8 a.m. These people have decided that alcohol is not the only option.”
The result have been robust sales at Green’s for cannabis beverages.
“We’re up 300% in THC drinks this year,” Reddic reports. “Currently, our dollar sales of THC are 33% more than craft beer.”
What about nonalcoholic drinks? Much has also been written about this category in terms of attracting younger/Gen Z consumers.
“We’ve seen some movement in Atlanta, which is a market that’s more current,” Reddic says. “But in South Carolina, the mindset is, ‘Why would I want to drink something that’s nonalcoholic?’”
Even in Atlanta, Reddic says that it’s only two or three nonalc brands that see any meaningful movement.
“We just haven’t seen people coming into the store and asking for these products,” he says.
Winning in Wine
Outside of wine-based RTDs, the wine category has not exactly excelled in recent time. Much the opposite, doom and gloom persists in this industry, with eye-opening reports of vineyards shuttering and vines being ripped from of the soil.
Reddic is not as downcast. “I don’t have the same concerns as much as other people do, as wine has become a bigger percentage of business for us the last decade,” he says.
What gives? “My son-in-law, who we got from Gallo, has energized that section for us,” Reddic explains.
What’s working for Green’s is the high-end of the category. Reddic’s son-in-law, Justin Daniels — who represents the fourth generation — focuses on high-end buyers who want to fill their cellars with premium bottles. “It helps that we’re now getting more allocations of DRC,” Reddic says.
“Of course, those numbers mask the underlying concern that wine is eroding for everybody,” he adds. “But the business Justin is doing makes up for what’s lost in day-to-day wine. Mid-high to high-end wine is very healthy. It’s the budget and just above budget that’s taking a licking.”
Reddic thinks that a newly wealthy generation sees wine as a status symbol. “There’s a direct correlation between the massive wealth transfer going on the last four or five years, with more money transferred generationally than ever before,” he says. “There really is no limit to what people will spend. Some of these people are also wealthy tech company owners, and they’re in a different stratosphere of buying.”
“There’s lots of ways that they try to justify it,” he continues. “They say that they’re going to save it for their kids, or that it holds value, but whatever their justification, wine has a certain allure for people who want to spend money.”
What’s Next?
Historically, Green’s has been a business in growth mode. The ongoing industry drawdown, however, has Reddic reconsidering his strategy — especially when it comes to opening more stores.
“The return on investment right now is not what it once was,” he says. “When we open a new store, which usually includes the building and the land, and possibly a lease, that’s typically a $3-million investment. And the rate of return in our industry is already low.”
To wit: Reddic has two more open licenses right now in South Carolina. “Instead of actively looking for potential new locations, I’m only passively searching,” he says. “If I was made aware of a location, I would consider it. But I’m not out looking every week, like I was one year ago.”
Reddic believes now is the time for caution as the industry remains in a cooling-off phase following the Covid-19 sales spikes.
“Maybe THC drinks will change that,” he says. “Maybe that will reignite this industry.”
Kyle Swartz is editor of Beverage Dynamics. Reach him at kswartz@epgacceleration.com. Read his recent piece, The 2026 Spirits Growth Brands Awards Winners.
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