Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo by Katie Giles Wine selection. Regardless of its locale and diverse selection, Pete's Highway 23 Liquor has seen a decrease in business. The store remains up for sale. [Click to enlarge]

After being up for sale for over a year, owner of Pete's Highway 23 Liquor Pete Amend is disappointed in the lack of potential buyers and overall business.

"People just aren't coming in like they used to, and we just don't know why," says Amend.

Before owning the liquor store, Amend owned and operated a canning company in town and worked as a food broker. He says his businesses have always been service-oriented, and he insists that this kind of mentality carries over in his efforts to cooperate with the college.

"Our relationship was always good," says Amend. "We always have had college kids working for us, we bought basketball uniforms and we donate money to every damn thing up there."

So the fact that student customers have been sparse is disheartening, says Amend. And he just can't seem to understand why.

"Maybe students are drinking less, or going downtown more, or maybe they're going somewhere else," he says. "I just don't know."

"I used to go to Pete's a lot," says senior Frank Montemurro. "But with Pick 'n Save's new selection and cheaper prices I tend to go there."

Though Montemurro admits Pete's has a diverse selection of alcohol, he still tends to choose Pick 'n Save. Even with Pete's 100 plus variety of wines, 185 varieties of import and domestic beers, and even more varieties of liquor, students admit they tend to go with the bigger businesses like Pick 'n Save and Steve's Liquor Warehouse.

"I usually go to Steve's just because I can walk there," says senior Arlene Alvarez-Vazquez. "Plus it's pretty cheap."

Alvarez-Vazquez disagrees with many, however, about Pick 'n Save's new liquor department, finding the selection to be "not that great," and prices to be higher than before. "It seems like when Pick 'n Save expanded their prices did too," she says.

Regardless of locality and price, senior Pete Nielsen continues to shop at Pete's. "It is a mom and pop shop so it has a nice feel to it."

Committed to the smaller, family-owned business, Nielsen has been conscious of the declining numbers walking into Pete's.

"When Steve's Liquor opened that hurt and with Pick 'n Save being so much bigger and more convenient I don't know if Pete's can compete," he says.

Like other persistent customers, Nielsen will be disappointed to see the store go, "but I can understand why," he says.

After 16 years of being in business on Highway 23, Amend still enjoys his customers and the new people he gets to meet.

But at this point, "I'm getting too old for this," he says, "and I'm ready to get out."

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