“Everyone says they love small businesses,” Robert Lavins of Lavins Liquors observed ruefully. “But not everyone shops at small businesses, and when they close, everyone wonders why.”
While Lavin’s Liquors, a historic restaurant and speakeasy turned liquor store with bar snacks and a food truck at 330 Old Connecticut Path in Wayland, has always competed with other small stores, the situation is worse with national franchises pricing below what Lavins pays for his stock. “Just about every store within a 10-mile radius was sold within the last five years. We’re the only ones who have not,” he said. In fact, “a few stores in Natick have sold their licenses for exorbitant amounts of money.”
It’s been tough post-COVID in the whole industry, Lavins said. “The liquor business has changed. We used to be one of the few stores in the area but the market has become more competitive and big companies aren’t really friendly with their aggressive pricing.”
Lavin’s has been in business since Robert’s grandfather opened it in 1944. Over the years, it’s also been a restaurant and a pub, and Robert has worked in the store since 1991.
Before COVID, he said, he could buy wholesale at reasonable levels, and it helped that more people shopped locally because he has to buy hundreds of cases to be able to turn a decent profit. But in the last year, utilities have gone up 35% to 40%, and the store’s electric bill is through the roof.
“Small businesses are about keeping your overhead low,” Lavins said. “I don’t even want to put my AC on because I don’t want a $2,000 electric bill. When you walk into a 7-Eleven store and get a refrigerated Coke, the cost of keeping it cool is more than the Coke. They’re banking on the customers buying scratch tickets.”
Lavins has held out because they own their own building and it’s a family business. “We maintain our own building with nephews and sons who help out — not a perfect model, but sweat equity keeps our doors open.”
The last two years have been challenging so Lavin has tried to be creative. “Total Wines has a range of items but we try to find good items that we can get at reasonable prices. Most people drink wine a couple of nights a week, so they like to stay between $12 and $15. You can get a lot of good wines for that,” he said.
To differentiate themselves from the major retail chains, Lavins has been trying to stock local brands that can’t be found elsewhere. “We’re buying craft items from small businesses that aren’t national brands like vodkas and rums made in New England,” he said. This last year they started carrying beer from Lamplighter Brewing Co. in Cambridge and Starting Line Brewing Co. in Hopkinton.
The business is also trying to expand inventory with things like snacks and candy, but the changes in the wholesale landscape have made this difficult. The smaller independently owned wholesale suppliers of those goods have gone out of business since COVID, Lavins said, leaving only the big companies like Cisco who require very large minimum purchases.
When asked about the impact of tariffs, Lavins said that alcohol tariffs have been absorbed by major suppliers thus far “I think eventually there will be price increases, but it hasn’t been dramatic yet.”
Alcohol habits have changed in recent years as well, especially wit the advent of “ready to drink” (RTD) products (pre-mixed, flavored alcoholic beverages), but there too, Lavins tries to be local by selling products from Fabrizia Co. in New Hampshire. What’s most popular right now? Overall, it’s RTDs, he said. the most popular wine is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc while the most popular beers are the craft beers. IPAs such as Jack’s Abbey are still hot.
Fall is the busiest time of year for liquor stores with football season and the holidays. Sales also increase in early summer “because people are stir-crazy from the winter,” Lavins said, but business slows down in the following months as customers go on vacation.
