Trump's "dumb" trade war affects industry

Here are some bad Yelp experiences that Gerard Leary, owner of Sweet Avenue, has had:

• Really bad Yelp reviews mistakenly left for his business—everything about the reviews made it obvious this wasn't his business. But there they sat, pulling his rating down.
• When informed there'd be a wait to be seated, possible guests have threatened to leave him a bad Yelp review if they weren't allowed to jump the line.
• And, of course, Yelp has relentlessly tried to get him to claim and manage his business listings (i.e. pay them).

If you've spent any time in the industry you've experienced Yelp-related stuff as bad or worse than this. So what should you do?

Gerard has arrived at a Zen-like solution: ignore it. All of it. Spend your time, money, and—most importantly—emotional energy on other aspects of your business.

Check out the interview clips for more about how and why Gerard decided to totally ignore Yelp:

(And if you've got a Yelp horror story that you'd like to share, please reply to this email with the story!)

Why worry about menu design?

Imagine this: you've done the significant work to have an always-up-to-date beer menu. Every single time a keg kicks or a new can arrives you update the menu accordingly. And that happens multiple times a month/week.

But you're not seeing an uptick in beer sales. Why? The up-to-date menu should be helping. You're starting to wonder if maybe it's not worth maintaining the menu.

If this is the case, your issue might be with the design of your menu rather than the content. A poorly designed beer menu can flatline your beer sales. But a well-designed menu can:

• Make your customers want to spend time with your menu.
• Help customers figure out what to order more easily.
• This puts customers at ease: coming back to the menu to order another beer isn't a daunting task. It's a pleasant one.

How can I get a well-designed beer menu?

You could do it manually. How you'd implement it depends on what works for your budget/team, but it could look like this:

• Locate a graphic designer, ideally one who has experience with menu-making.
• Work with them to create a well-designed editable menu template. Make sure they understand the use case—you'll be editing this often, so it can't be a fragile design that breaks if a beer name is too long, etc. It also needs to be editable in an approachable software program, not a difficult-to-use design program.
• Train all necessary members of your team (managers, bartenders, etc.) on how to edit the menu template file. Make sure they practice so they know where to locate it, how to edit it, etc. You don't want them to be handcuffed on a Friday afternoon.
• Anytime your beer selection changes, you/a team member visits the file to delete the beer(s) that's gone and add the new beer(s).

It certainly takes some effort to track down a talented graphic designer and to train your team, but doing it manually like this could be worth it if that's your only option.

Trump's tariffs were big news throughout the last week. Though his threatened 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods were delayed for 30 days, the markets still churned in anticipation/fear, while some industries—like the American alcohol industry—have been dealing with significant fall out.

Here are some perspectives on the tariffs from different levels of the industry—from corporate giants to local breweries.

• Not looking good for the conglomerates. Basically all of them—from Diageo to Campari—expect to take a significant hit to sales if the tariffs take effect. The big reason why: they all have significant exposure to the Mexico side of things in the form of tequila.
• Maker of Corona feeling it too. Constellation brands saw their stock sink as investors reacted to the news.
• Proactive boycotts in Canada. In preparation for the tariffs, some Canadian provinces announced bans on American alcohol products. Some stores pulled American products from the shelves and replaced them with "Buy Canadian" print outs. It's not clear whether those orders (or print outs) were rescinded after the 30-day delay.
• American craft breweries affected too. Even though the tariffs got delayed 30 days and probably won't come to pass at all, Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee was told its Canadian orders were stopped. 4% of their annual sales come from Canada, and if things remain sour that would absolutely affect their situation at home.

At this point Trump has gotten basically nothing in return for the hullabaloo. It seems like he just wanted some more attention (insatiable, that appetite) and to punch around our neighbors a bit. Meanwhile, real people and businesses are getting negatively affected.

I don't often say this, but the Wall Street Journal's editorial page got it right: this is a dumb trade war.