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Retailers Of Note: Root Beer Barrel

For the last 39 years, a barrel of root beer flavored candy has sat perched in the front entrance of Root Beer Barrel, giving customers a sweet taste while they peruse one of the most stocked surf shops in the industry.

Posted 8/20/2012

Brigantine, New Jersey

By Shelby Stanger

Contrary to what it might seem, Root Beer Barrel in Brigantine, New Jersey was not named for smokes, booze and tubes.

Founded in 1973 by John “Barrel” Gabries when he was only eighteen years old, the shop was actually named after root beer flavored candy.

When he was 17, Gabries frequented a record shop called Licorice Pizza back in California. “The hippy dude behind the counter always had boxes of licorice, and every time I ate some I felt like I needed to buy something,” says Gabries. “I figured if I gave away free candy when I opened my own shop, it’d give customers that guilty feeling that they had to buy something,” he adds with a laugh.

“We have more than 4,000 boardshorts and you can’t stick a piece of paper between each pair on the racks,” says Gabries, whose two-story store is 2,200 square feet.

The bottom floor is full of apparel and accessories while the top hosts a full array of surfboards, kayak fishing boats, and other hardgoods.

Gabries can also pull inventory from a 50 foot by 50 foot warehouse when supplies run low. “In the middle of winter during a holiday or even on a random summer day there might be 10,000 people on the beach. It goes from nothing to craziness at any point,” he says.

Gabries makes sure he has something for everyone at Root Beer Barrel―even people who don’t fit the standard “skinny surfer” mold. “One of our nicknames is ‘your store,’” he says. “We have size one and baby Birdwell’s all the way to size 18 for women and 42 for men. We’ve got something for everyone, no matter what age or size.”

While Brigantine Island is just across Abescon Inlet from Atlantic City, people who make the trek to the store aren’t just passing by. The shop caters to the tourists who come to the island’s pristine beaches from all over the world, but it also has a niche following of hardcore surfers who love not only the large selection of hardgoods and hard-to-find core surf brands, but also for John’s stories.

When Gabries opened the shop in 1973, there was only one surf shop nearby, and it was 40 minutes away and barely carried any merchandise. Immediately after opening, Root Beer Barrel to become the go-to shop for latest surf equipment and surf-related clothing.

Gabries attended the very first Surf Expo (which everyone got kicked out a day early for jumping off a roof into the hotel pool) the first year he opened his shop. He was also the first local to carry surfboard leashes, and has dozens of stories of people lining up for hours to have him install a leash plug for the first bungee-cord leashes: “It usually nailed them in the face,” he says with a laugh.

Besides leashes and thrusters, John was one of the first in the area to catch on to the denim craze in the 80s, the Hawaiian shirt craze, the rollerblading craze in the early 90s, and the kayak fishing craze, which they currently do a big business with.

Today, Root Beer Barrel still carries the hottest surfboard labels, brands, and is on top of most trends before they become truly “trendy.”

“There’s a saying in retail, you can’t stick to what used to work, you always have to be moving and changing,” says John, who now only keeps the shop open from Memorial Day to Labor Day when tourists come to town.

“For 32 years I kept my shop open in winter, but we only did ten percent of our business then compared to the rest of the year. So finally I just locked the door for winter and went to Florida to fish,” he laughs.

For a guy who started a shop at 17 years old with only $1,500, Gabries at Root Beer Barrel definitely has one of the sweetest stories in surf retail history.