Photo by Deb Gau Tall Grass Liquor manager Eric Luther said one of the newest additions to the store in the past year was a new display case for ready-to-drink cocktails. “RTD” products were popular with customers in 2022

MARSHALL — After Minnesota’s adult-use marijuana law passed, Marshall’s municipal liquor store became the first business in the city to stock lower-potency edibles and drinks.

While customers have been curious, there hasn’t been a sudden jump in demand, said Tall Grass Liquor manager Eric Luther.

“It has not been crazy, as far as the demand,” Luther said this week.

Luther gave the Marshall City Council an update on hemp-based beverages and edibles during the liquor store’s annual report on Tuesday. The municipal liquor store is the only business that can sell edible products in Marshall, under a temporary city moratorium that took effect July 1.

“I’m working on a revised handbook that kind of updates us to what current law is,” Luther told city council members.

Since July 1, Tall Grass has had about $2,000 in sales of lower-potency THC drinks and edibles, Luther said.

“I checked with some of the other municipals, and that’s kind of what they’ve been seeing,” he said.

Luther said a display of THC drinks is located close to the store register. In compliance with state law, lower-potency edibles are kept behind the counter, he said. At this point in time, purchases of THC products are cash-only, and require ID, he said.

“So that’s kind of a new thing. Will it be big? I don’t know. It’s hard to say right now,” Luther said.

The bulk of Luther’s presentation on Tuesday night went over financial details and other updates at Tall Grass Liquor in 2022.

Total sales at Tall Grass were over $7.07 million in 2022, which was an increase of more than $352,000 from 2021. At the same time, the store’s $944,000 in net profits was down $54,891 compared to 2021.

“If you look at our sales history, it’s stayed high since COVID,” Luther said.

E.J. Moberg, director of administrative services for the city of Marshall, said the decrease in net profits at Tall Grass Liquor had to do with a city pension expense.

“We have a pension liability that gets set via audit, and then it gets allocated to our funds based on number of employees,” Moberg said. “So with the increased pension liability that we had as a city, some of that share got shifted as well to Tall Grass.” Moberg said that increase and other personnel costs affected the store’s net profits in 2022.

The liquor store currently has a total of 17 employees, according to the annual report.

Last year, the liquor store was able to transfer $575,000 in profits to the city’s general fund and debt service funds to lower Marshall’s property tax levy, Moberg said.

Beer remained the top-selling product at Tall Grass Liquor in 2022, making up 46% of sales. But beer sales aren’t as big a share of the store’s profits as wine and spirits, Luther said. Ready-to-drink cocktails and Minnesota-made craft beers were popular among customers at Tall Grass, he said.

Tall Grass was able to support a variety of community service causes in 2022, according to the annual report. Some of those causes included making donations to groups like the Marshall Pet Rescue, the SMSU Foundation, and the Marshall PTA 5K run. The store also sponsored a panel of the story walk outside the Marshall-Lyon County Library.

Luther also went over some of the new features rolled out at the store over the past year. One of the newest is a refrigerated display case for ready-to-drink cocktails. Luther said Tall Grass Liquor has already seen benefits from installing similar cases for single cans and chilled wines. Another feature that has been successful over the past several months is a new online ordering platform through the store’s website, he said.

“We rolled this out last fall, and it continues to grow in usage,” he said.