Northway Hardware trying to bring back Inverary liquor store

Jeff Green | Apr 07, 2016

The community was taken by surprise when the liquor store in Inverary closed on March 21. The Barr family, who ran the store along with a convenience store, decided to retire.

When Reta Azulay, the owner of Northway Hardware, which is located next door, found out what had happened, she immediately contacted the Barrs and offered to rent the store, because whatever happens, Northway can use the space.

The second thing she did was contact the LCBO to find out about re-opening the liquor store.

“The liquor store is important for Inverary,” she said when interviewed early this week. “We fought to stop a solar farm from coming in, and we were successful. We are trying to build up the community, and there is a lot of development coming this way. The convenience of a liquor store is important to people in the surrounding area.”

The response she received from the LCBO was that they had not renewed the contract with the Barrs because a new corporate store has been opened on Division Street next to the Canadian Tire and No Frills stores and the company needs to do research to determine if a store in Inverary is still necessary.

“We know from running our own business for decades that people do not want to have to drive to Kingston all the time” said Azulay. “If they think north Kingston is going to serve them, they are wrong. The liquor store is definitely needed for Inverary.”

Not only has she contacted the LCBO repeatedly by email and phone, Azulay has also contacted MPP Randy Hillier who expressed his support, and sent an email to the township.

“Ron Vandewal is putting forward a motion of support for this, which I did not expect, and the two councilors for Storrington, Norm Roberts and Ron Sleeth, are also fully in support,” she said.

A petition to bring back the liquor store has been signed by 1000 people in one week.

What Azulay is hoping to hear this week is if the LCBO is going to put out a call for tenders to take over the contract in Inverary. If it does she will submit a bid, hoping to put it back into the same location where it was until just two weeks ago.

All of the shelving has been left in place in the building, and while work has been done to brighten the space up a little, Northway is waiting to see if a liquor store can come back before preparing it for any other use.

“We never planned to go into the liquor store business,” she said, “but we think it is important for Inverary's future that there is a liquor store. A couple of older buildings in the village are being renovated now and we are trying to bring the village back to where it was. Losing the liquor store would move us backwards when we want to move forwards,” she said.