Cuban Liquor, the locally owned retailer of fine spirits and gourmet foods, recently conducted a raffle of rare and highly sought-after bourbons, which raised over $28,000 for United Way Northwest Louisiana’s educational program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The funds will be used to mail free books to area youth each month, promoting literacy and increasing Kindergarten readiness amongst Shreveport’s most vulnerable children.
The bourbon category has experienced explosive growth in the past few years, leaving liquor stores with a difficult decision of how to sell a limited quantity of bottles to a vast customer base. Each year, Cuban organizes a Rare Whiskey Charity Raffle, to fairly sell its allocation of rare bourbons. For nine days, customers came to Cuban to purchase $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win the right to purchase bottles including Pappy Van Winkle, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, Blanton’s, Weller, and more.
The raffle culminated in a Facebook live drawing on March 3rd, where customers tuned in to see if they held a winning ticket. Over $28,000 in raffle tickets were purchased, with 100% of the proceeds being donated to United Way of Northwest Louisiana.
“Liquor stores across the country are faced with tough choices of how to sell the very limited number of popular bourbons they receive each year,” said Grant Nuckolls, co-owner of Cuban Liquor. “For over a year, we planned this raffle, collecting 125 allocated and rare bourbons. We are committed to selling these products at normal retail pricing, with no so-called ‘secondary’ markups. The response from our customers was overwhelmingly positive – they appreciated a chance to purchase these bottles at a fair price, and they welcomed the opportunity to donate to a local nonprofit in the process.”
“We were blown away at the response of our customers, and so thankful we could raise this money for United Way,” noted Andrew Crawford, co-owner of Cuban Liquor. “Tori Thomas (United Way NWLA’s CEO) and her team make a huge impact by fighting for the health, education, financial stability, and essential needs of every person in our community.”
Located at 928 Pierremont Road, Cuban Liquor is open Monday-Thursday 10am-7pm, and Friday-Saturday 10am-8pm. For more information, visit www.cubanliquor.com, or visit the store’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CubanLiquorShreveport. Cuban also has an app which can be downloaded on the Apple Store or Google Play.