Gina, pictured, and Glen Miller have owned Southgate Liquor & Wine for seven years and are continually making improvements to provide the best neighborhood store experience to their customers. Samantha Flavell. Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com
Southgate Liquor & Wine, a family-run liquor and wine store located in the Southgate Plaza, 1030 Union Road, West Seneca, offers a competitive selection without sacrificing the friendly, familiar face of a neighborhood store.
This year marks the seventh that Southgate Liquor & Wine has been owned and operated by Gina and Glen Miller.
“We always wanted to own our own business; we did a little research and went to a few of our neighborhoods,” Gina said. “This was our local store that we would shop at, and we came in one day and talked to the prior owners and found out they were looking to sell soon … they happened to call us like a year later to say that they were ready [to sell], so we took the opportunity.”
The store, which was established in 1977, was outdated in several areas. Upon taking it over, the Millers hit the ground running to remodel the store and make it their own.
“We remodeled the whole back. It needed a facelift, a serious one,” Gina said. “We’re still slowly working that in, but we wanted to start with the back so that we didn’t disrupt the daily functions of the retail space.”
Store manager Wiley Moore has been employed at Southgate Liquor & Wine for about 35 years, and Clayton Krupski, the store’s other manager, has been there for 16. During the transition of ownership, this consistent and knowledgeable staff helped the Millers as they learned to navigate the responsibility of owning a liquor and wine store as well as helped the customers adapt to the new ownership.
“This has always been a family-run, neighborhood store. The customer base here is very loyal; we have customers who have been coming here for 40 years,” Gina said. “So, it’s nice they still see familiar faces and that it wasn’t a huge change where we came in and saw all new faces. It helped the transition go smoothly.”
Now that Gina and Glen are gaining their own breadth of knowledge as they enter their seventh year owning the store, they look toward new ways to improve the business and better serve their customers.
“I want to keep the feel of a hometown neighborhood store but also expand on the new, modern marketing with social media,” Gina said. “We want people to know that they can come in here, and although they may look at us as a small business, we have a big selection. We have the mainstream items, but we also have high-end wines and high-end liquors. We’ve been in this business so long we have the order history, so we’re able to get those, sought-after, rare items.”
While Southgate Liquor & Wine continually stocks the popular, staple brands, they also continually look for new products to offer customers, as well as support the local beverage industry by stocking locally crafted spirits and wine.
“The liquor and wine industry is constantly changing, and there are always new products to bring in. I would really like to expand our local selection,” Gina said. “The distilleries alone popping up in the city are great, and I really want to focus on that and expand that as much as we can to support Buffalo.”
As a business, they are receptive to the requests of their customers. Gina says their goal is to provide a friendly neighborhood store atmosphere while doing their best to cater to the needs and tastes of their customers whenever possible.
“If it’s doable, we always try to include it,” Gina said. “I’ve had a few customers who moved into the area who say, ‘this is our new liquor store, you don’t have this,’ so we bring it in because we want you to come here.”
Southgate Liquor and Wine is open from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Learn more about what they offer by visiting their Facebook page, Southgate Liquor & Wine, or by calling the store at 674-8118.
“We want to continue being a neighborhood store where you see a familiar face,” Gina said. “Our customers know us. I live in West Seneca; they’re our neighbors.”
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