Lying just at the south end of one of North America's most magnificent mountain ranges--the Grand Tetons (literally "teats") of Western Wyoming--lies the small town of Jackson Hole.
It is a favorite destination of--and increasingly home to--the nouveau riche, the famous and the powerful. Real estate prices have sky-rocketed and the main commercial drag is lined with boutiques sporting outrageous prices for bright red or green cowboy boots only a tourist could love.
The place abounds with high-end and very good restaurants, sports its share of rollicking saloons, boasts over 70 hotels and motels, dozens of art galleries and one of the world's great ski areas.
While catering to Winnebagos full of families touring Teton National Park and, just to the north, Yellowstone during summer months, in the fall and winter it's hunters, snowmobilers and skiers.
While Vice President Dick Cheney resides there (he is known to indulge in good wine), and the Clinton family were regular visitors, the observant will quickly surmise that, underneath all the glitter and glare, lies a bedrock of year-'round residents, workers and business owners who quietly, without much fanfare, go about their lives and business.
Peter and Jacque (pronounced like Jacki) Cook would certainly be counted among them. These are the folks who work the long hours, serve on various local boards and committees, take an interest in the schools their children attend, then try to take a day off now and then to enjoy the amenities surrounding them.
The Cooks moved to Jackson Hole in 1974 from the Quad-Cities area along the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois--Moline, Ill., specifically for Jacque and East Moline for Peter.
They had both finished college degrees and started careers in their fields--Peter as a mechanical engineer and Jacque as a junior high teacher.
But the bug to go west and gamble their futures hit them like it has dozens of generations of Americans before them. They opened a Happy Joe's restaurant, pizza and ice cream parlor. Eventually, they had five of them in Wyoming and Colorado.
But by 1985 the Cooks needed a change of pace so sold the group of restaurants and opened a liquor store, now called The Liquor Store/The Wine Loft.
In the meantime Peter served on the local fire department, chamber of commerce board, Bank of Jackson Hole board (went from $9 million to $300 million in deposits), the Teton Science School board, the Wine and Spirits Guild of America, the former National Licensed Beverage Association and National Association of Beverage Retailers, the state licensee association, the local rural electric cooperative board, Rotary and more.
And these aren't two-year terms: he has served in several of these capacities for more than a decade.
In fact he helped launch an annual Rotary Club Wine Festival attended by 700-800 locals and which raises $30-$40,000 annually for local college scholarships. Peter was also named a Market Watch Leader in 1995 by Market Watch magazine.
All the while Jacque was working in the family business, she raised three kids: Cori, age 28; Megan, age 25 and J.P., age 21.
"These are good kids with a good work ethic," Jacque says. "We enjoy each other. The kids all worked in the business," as they grew up. "On Christmas Eve, we were all at the store working, gift wrapping."
Then Jacque chuckles. "I remember when J.P. was in kindergarten and I was away, he showed his dad how to run the computer, how to print out reports."
She also volunteered with the local hospital and was an ambulance driver for over a decade.
Currently she is the first female president of the Wyoming State Liquor Assoc. She says she is considering volunteering for a local domestic abuse intervention organization as she scales back her day-to-day involvement in managing the businesses.
In fact, Peter was in Portland on business for the utility when we conducted the interview and Jacque was heading for Casper, Wyo., for a state liquor association meeting.
When we caught up to her, business association issues were on her mind, and she clicked though a number of them: penalties for minors attempting to buy, population formulas for quota licenses, alcohol without liquid (AWOL) ban, liquor and beer taxes, minimum wage, dram shop liability, sobriety checkpoints, mandatory server training, a military exception to age 21, direct shipping... All familiar to anyone paying attention to the business.
Throughout the interview Peter keeps coming back to Jacque's achievements and contributions. "I think I over-married. I have a lot of admiration for her," he says.
Yet, despite a family, numerous business enterprises to stay on top of and in-depth community service, the family has managed to "work hard, then play hard."
After working almost exclusively for the first 10 years, Peter says they came to enjoy snowmobiling, downhill and cross-country skiing, boating, hiking and riding their Harley Davidson. They have purchased a residence near the Superstition Mountains of Arizona and are now hoping to enjoy the occasional two- or three-week getaways, Jacque says, as the couple nears the end of their fifth decade.
Peter says he would like to start winding down the family business affairs, which include the liquor store and partnerships in a full-license bar, a home-center and planned-unit development.
Jacque notes her son is about to finish a business degree and a daughter works out of Salt Lake City for Young's Market, a large regional liquor distributor. Both have expressed an interest in taking the reins.
Jacque says she thinks that would be just fine, though she says she would like J. P. to broaden his experience base in the business before coming aboard in an ownership capacity.
Perhaps an infusion of aggressive, new blood in family the enterprises would be a good idea, though Peter and Jacque haven't been asleep at the switch. When they arrived in Jackson Hole, there were 3-4,000 permanent residents in the county. That is now closer to 20,000 and, where there was once a single bottle shop, there are now five, though the Cooks' outlet still does the highest volume and now employs 12.
Peter says he has found the liquor business to be "a fun business. The people you deal with are planning on having some fun; the customer is in a good mood and we help create that atmosphere. They are in a good mood when they come in and in a better mood when they leave.
"We sell service and knowledge and, by the way, we'll also sell you a bottle of wine," Peter says.
Their Jackson Hole store stocks 5,000 SKUs of which 1,200 are wines (as well as $1,500 bottles of Remy-Martin Louis XIV cognac). It occupies 5,600 sq. ft. on two levels, with the second level--a "wine loft"--also providing a convenient and comfortable community meeting room that is used regularly by book and investment clubs as well as for the store's own promotional events.
In 1985 the store did 27 percent of its volume in wine; today it is 53 percent, Peter says, although they are growing their selection of upscale spirits, especially tequilas, single malts and vodkas.
They have even developed a little side-line doing special labeling for organizations and companies.
"We've enjoyed our affiliation with the ABL," Peter says. "It is an extremely important organization. We need the lobbying. The industry must have an organization like this with a lot of dedicated people."
What shape will the industry have taken 50 years down the road?
Jacque says she couldn't possibly guess, but in the more short term--10 to 20 years from now--she thinks it should be pretty much the same.
"There will always be liquor stores and wine shops. People want the human touch, the human recommendation" instead of reading about it on the internet," she says. "We won't go away."
Let's hope not for the sake of the country's small towns and for the sake of the adult beverage business.
Source: ABL Leader, November, 2005, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.