Oldest liquor store to close
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on June 16, 2005 1:45 PM
Wayne County's oldest liquor store will close at the end of the month, leaving downtown Goldsboro high and dry.
ABC Store No. 1 opened in 1964 at 206 E. Mulberry St., now next to the county's Jeffreys Building, and was the only place for years to buy liquor in Wayne County.
But its sales have declined by $300,000 a year since the county ABC board opened the store on Landmark Drive, said Mike Myrick, the board's supervisor and general manager.
"That store's customers are coming out here now," Myrick said in a telephone interview this morning.
The ABC board decided to close the store when its lease expired at the end of the month. One reason is the board's offices and warehousing have also moved to Landmark Drive, so it doesn't need that large a facility, he said. It's expensive to heat and cool the whole building primarily to serve the store.
Parking is limited, he noted. "We need at least 10 spaces that are designated for our customers."
The board plans to review sales data in six months and consider whether to seek a new central location, Myrick said. "I would love to be able to find some other place so that we would return downtown."