Whiskey begins to

line a shelf at Rick's

Place in Wolfforth on
Few businesses in county to sell alcohol
Wednesday under
the direction of West @? First appeared on lubbockonlinerom:
941 pm. Wedhexlay.
Brownfrom Glazers BY E L L I O T BLACKBURN
Wholesale Distributors.
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
The store became the
first in Lubbock County About 30 miles of cotton
outside the strip to and sunflower fields away
stock liquor since the from Lubbock city limits, 58-
passage of the alcohol year-old Wicker Nowlin won't
vote in May. worry much about growth or
competition.
Fresh white lettering an-
nounced the beer and wine
Nowlin planned to sell to trav-
elers along a 'narrow county
road with more farm traffic
than cars or trucks.
An antique fuel pump
leaned up against the brown
cinderblock building in Mid-
way, east of his home in Ran-
som Canyon, and an amiable
mutt stretched out in front of
locked plywood doors.
"I really don't want a whole
lot of business," Nowlin said
in a phone interview from the
Texas coast. "That sounds kind
of odd. I just want to keep it
nice and quiet."
Across the hundreds of
miles of Lubbock County free
from city delays in the sale of
SEE ALCOHOL, PAGE A7

ALCOHOL: New permit ban eqected to end soon
FROM PAGE A1
alcohol, interest in new liquor
stores has reached a trickle.
Three stores - Nowlin's, an
Idalou gas station and a growing
beer and wine spot in Wolfforth
-have sought and received per-
mits to sell alcohol in the two
months since voters approved
countywide alcohol sales.
Only the Wolfforth permit al-
lows hard liquor sales, creating
the county's first package store
since the May 9 vote.
A lawsuit filed by co-owners
of The Strip, the only legal spot
for liquor in Lubbock County
for decades, has blocked new
alcohol permits in city limits
since May. Work has nearly
finished that will lift the ban on
new alcohol permits in Lubbock
in early August.
But few county businesses
have taken advantage of the gap
between city sales and the rest
of the county.
Business owners said high
expenses and low traffic outside
city limits may discourage coun-
ty sales, keeping city residents
weeks or months away from new
options when they want a bottle
of hard liquor.
Liquor distributors jostled
for space Wednesday morning
at Rick's Place in Wolfforth as
owner Rick Claybrook used a
desk calculator to run prices
on his first sales of tequila and
whiskey.
"We tried to pre-enter this in-
ventory, but there's always little
glitches," Claybrook said.
The 50-year-old took advan-
tage of the lawsuit blocking
plans - including his own - to
set up new stores inside the city
of Lubbock. Rick's was, at least '
on Wednesday, the only shop
between West Lubbock and the
state line where shoppers could
.find hard alcohol, he said.
"I don't know how long that's
going to last - I wouldn't ex-
pect it to be a real long time,"
Claybrook said. "We're going to
enjoy it while we can."
Rick's Place has expanded
three times in the two years '
since it opened, he said. The
clattering liquor bottles work-
ers arranged outside his office
were just the latest business
move; a second location in
Southwest Lubbock would come
next.
But Claybrook didn't see
much future opening stores
elsewhere in the county.
"It's expensive to put one of
these stores in. In order for one
of them to be successful, you
have to have some type of vol-
ume," he said. "You just have to
kind of follow along with what
your market does."
Claybrook's competitor down
the road had the same ideas.
Ben Lanford, president of
Doc's brand owner Majestic
Liquor Stores Inc., said the
LOCAL
company had already taken the
first steps toward a new liquor
store in Wolfforth.
But the company would focus
on new products and real estate
inside Lubbock city limits, he
said.
Majestic had joined Pinkie's
Liquor Inc., in the lawsuit that
won a temporary restraining
order against new businesses
until August. New Doc's stores
inside the city could open close
to Thanksgiving, he said.
The new stores would focus
on spirits and specialty beers
when they did open. Liquor
stores would cede much of their
beer and wine sales to grocers
and convenience stores, he
said.
With that kind of competition
and little traffic to fight for, own-
ers would have a tough time
starting up stores too far from
the city, he said.
"You've got to realize that all
of the-population there is re-
ally concentrated in the city,"
Lanford said. "You're not going
to find a whole lot, I don't think,
of interest in permits."
Neon beer signs buzzed above
coolers at Allsup's in Idalou,
where the sudden appearance
of six packs surprised custom-
ers last week.
Store employees at the first
-and only -convenience store
to start offering beer and wine
since the election said busi-
ness was brisk but declined to
comment further. Corporate
officials did not return two days
of calls.
Allsup's did not have much
competition.
Matt Kendrick, director of
marketing for Hub City Conve-
nience stores, said his company
was seeking a permit for their
store at US 84 and Frankford
Avenue. But he and other con-
venience store man'agers knew
of few others. Maybe there sim-
ply weren't enough convenience
stores or customers -outside of
the city to make the permits
urgent, he said.
"You've got me, man," Kend-
rick said.
Nowlin didn't worry much
about customers. He ran a beer
store in 1990 and expected the
same, sparse traffic of cyclists,
motorcycle groups and the oc-
casional migrant worker in gin-
ning season.
He just wanted a simple coun-
try store - no neon, no flash, no
crowds, and no grand plans for a
liquor empire.
"There was a liquor store,
beer store out there when I
was growing up," Nowlin said.
"I was probably about 14, and
yeah, I like the old stuff. Don't
want anything fancy or new. Do
what I can with what I got."
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