When Nesh Patel first moved to New York Metropolis three years in the past, selecting up groceries and some bottles of wine from the Dealer Joe’s in Union Sq. was a ritual.
A deal on the time allowed customers to combine and match six bottles and get a reduction from the whole worth. “That was what made it tremendous inexpensive,” he recalled.
However final week, he walked by the shop and was stunned to see that it had been shuttered: “It got here out of sort of nowhere,” he mentioned, calling it a kind of “establishment” for the realm. “It’s sort of unbelievable that it’s gone.”
Dealer Joe’s solely wine retailer in New York State closed with out warning final week, sending some customers of the grocery retailer chain with a cult following right into a minor tailspin.
“We have now been working our small wine store within the Union Sq. neighborhood for over 15 years, and we thanks for your online business and help all through the years,” a posted signal learn. Theories concerning the cause for the closing abounded: the impacts of the pandemic, the tip of a lease, a brand new location.
The signal learn: “It’s now time for us to discover one other location that can enable us to optimize the potential of our one and solely license to promote wine within the state of New York.”
The corporate mentioned it deliberate to “supply a good higher wine store expertise” to New York prospects, and added that workers members on the location could be paid by way of Aug. 28 and introduced with alternatives to maneuver to a different retailer location in New York Metropolis.
A spokesperson for Dealer Joe’s declined to specify what the following iteration of the shop would possibly seem like.
The Dealer Joe’s retailer and its adjoining wine store in Union Sq. was among the many least expensive choices for each meals and alcohol in a metropolis neighborhood that features a mixture of New York College dorms and high-end condominium buildings.
The shop opened to a lot fanfare in 2006, the primary of many to come back because the California-based chain, recognized for its quirky house-brand merchandise and candy offers, expanded into the New York Metropolis market. The wine store quickly grew to become a staple for a thriving residential space the place it made more of a splash than the standard wine and liquor retailer.
Along with prospects who created recipes and pairings from the shop’s artistic meals choices, devotees of the so-called Two Buck Chuck (a wine bottle from the shop’s Charles Shaw line that prices round $2, relying on the place you reside) and different choices flocked there for its offers.
Dealer Joe’s usually carries wines from the California wine nation but additionally from New Zealand, Italy, France and past. Many are from its personal label.
On many a weeknight, the road to the 2 shops may very well be seen extending out towards Union Sq. park or wrapping across the constructing in that bustling nook of Manhattan.
Mr. Patel, 28, who works in personal fairness, mentioned he now outlets at wine shops with extra choice, however there’s nonetheless a “nostalgia issue.”
Due to New York’s alcohol gross sales guidelines, the chain may solely maintain a license for one wine retailer within the metropolis, and it selected a constructing instantly subsequent to the Dealer Joe’s grocery retailer there.
Nonetheless, many purchasers lamented that, with out warning, they had been instantly unable to replenish on a few of their favourite blends.
Dealer Joe’s relies in California, the place most grocery shops can promote beer, wine and liquor. Laws fluctuate state by state, with some permitting supermarkets to promote wine and beer. However in New York, grocery shops can promote solely beer, and chains like Dealer Joe’s can only have one location, usually separate, for the sale of wine or liquor.
The Entire Meals in New York Metropolis, equally, has one wine retailer, subsequent to a location on the Higher West Aspect, additionally housed individually from the grocery operation.
Although the discover posted on the Union Sq. store implied that Dealer Joe’s would quickly have a brand new location for wine within the metropolis, that didn’t make devotees really feel a lot better this week: One TikTok video exhibiting the closed door was set, mournfully, to the tune of Whitney Houston’s “I Will At all times Love You.”
