Sadly, the Columbia, MO landmark Liquor, Guns and Ammo is no more because in addition to the aforementioned items you could also buy live bait and fishing poles. Truly a one-stop shop for some customers.

Everyone has their favorite place to buy their liquor. For some people it’s duty-free shops while on vacation; for others it’s the place that will let them trade-in their empties for bottle deposits and pay the balance in pennies. Somewhere between those two extremes lies the perfect liquor store.

The criteria for what constitutes a favorite shop is different for each person, and sometimes different for the same person depending on a plethora of factors.  Sometimes the checklist of success is simple: you just care that it is open and convenient; other times it is location; sometimes you really care about their selection of ______ (insert spirit, wine or beer species of the moment here); and at other times it’s all about price, price, price.

For many people there is a fundamental divide in choosing a store which simply comes down to: Big Box store versus Locally Owned shop. And sometimes the locally owned can be further divided into multi-outlet versus boutique. While I’ve shopped at my fair share of big box stores lately I find myself spending more time in small and mid-sized stores with a curated selection. Local store prices may not be as good on most things, but their selection (which may or may not be as good) will be curated differently. And it is for this reason that I support them. There is also the fact that a locally owned store is more likely to pump profits back into the local economy than an international or national retailer.

It is by no means my favorite whisky, but I drink it once a year every year to honor my grandfather – who always enjoyed his Cutty Sark.

Big Box stores are all about volume – which means if you want a 1.75 liter of Cutty Sark (my grandfather’s whisky of choice) this is usually the place to buy it. They’ll have cases and cases of it. But that volume is a double-edged sword. If a spirit producer can’t reliably deliver those massive volumes of spirit then you won’t find it on the shelves of Cheapco Big Box. Which means if you only set foot in the warehouse stores you’ll have missed the massive movement of craft distilling here in the US – Balcones will be absent, Hudson will be awol, and Berkshire Mountain Distilling will be up in the hills.

For a long time I shopped in one store, not because of their selection or price, which were fine, but because of their service. They had a wine manager who would get just as excited to talk about filling up a case of $10-12 a bottle wine as he would a $20 or $30 a bottle case. The only difference between the two was that he had more choice in the higher-end range. His enthusiasm and attention made us loyal customers for years but eventually he moved on. The new manager was fine but he made us feel like second class citizens when we asked for $10-12 a bottle case. We finally started buying our booze in a lot of different stores – because we had no loyalty to any particular one. Over a couple of years we must have tried 20-30 different ones before finally settling one just a couple.

My current favorite store is locally owned. It has a great combination of selection – lots of Whiskies; interesting choices in rums and gins; a very large wine selection at a variety of price points; and at least 100 beers in the reefer. Their prices are slightly higher but the staff is super-attentive, the location is super convenient and their hours match my needs. And maybe just as important the staff actually cares about what they sell – they are experts and consumers of wines, rums, whiskies, etc. The fact that they know about the product in detail is what pushed them over the top for me.

Luckily liquor store loyalty doesn’t require monogamy – I also have another store 50 miles away that I really like where the service is okay but the Whisky selection is amazing. They must have over 400 whiskies on offer Scotch, Irish, Indian, American, Japanese. Obviously the 2nd store isn’t my every day store, but I do enjoy stopping by periodically to pick up something I can’t get at my local store.

Of course these choices reflect and absurdity of choices – sometimes merely being open and close enough to get to before it closes is enough to elevate a humble establishment to “favorite status”. Do you have a favorite liquor store? Why is it your favorite store? What makes it special? Tell us your thoughts on Twitter or on Facebook. Hope to see you August 7th at our inaugural tasting.