Last Call for a month: Liquor privatization leaves Colfax dry until June

Colfax is going to be awful dry for the next month after the liquor store shut down for good Tuesday night.

“Last call, Colfax,” said Theresa Knighten, who has manned the counter at the liquor store for the past two decades.

Prices were not discounted.

The Colfax store was a contract operation through the State Liquor Control Board. Don Stine, the contract vendor for the store, opted not to continue operation after a voter-approved initiative privatized liquor sales.

State liquor officials have been scheduled to pick up the store’s leftover inventory today, Thursday.

Liquor will not be available for purchase in Colfax until Rosauers begins stocking liquor June 1.

Rosalia was scheduled to dry up Thursday when Roberta Messenger was set to close down her contract store.

Bars in both Colfax and Rosalia will continue to sell liquor by the drink. They will be supplied by their liquor distributors.

Brad Persons, owner and operator of the Hyde Out tavern in Colfax, does not expect business to pick up, even though bars like his will be the only liquor outlet in town until June 1.

“I think the only business that’s going to pick up is Idaho’s liquor sales,” he said.

Persons was set to make a final stock-up buy of liquor at the Colfax store prior to Tuesday’s closure. His beer distributor will begin bringing liquor to stock the Hyde Out bar next week.

“It’s going to be a lot more expensive,” warned Persons.

He said his distributors expect prices to rise $2 to $10 a bottle in order to recoup new fees they had to pay to get a license to distribute hard spirits.

Mikhail Carpenter with the liquor control board said a litany of duties the state must go through in order to close contract stores necessitated the early May pickup.

“It’s unfortunate for those of you who live there, but we have a whole number of steps we have to take in order to close a store down,” said Carpenter.

Inventory from contract vendors who have opted not to continue operation as private operators will be moved to nearby state-run liquor stores. Unsold liquor will be sold back to the suppliers who initially sold it to the state.

Shawn McAdams, manager of the Colfax Rosauers, said his store will stock the liquor at the front of the store, where dog food is now stocked.

Dog food will be moved to the current cart location inside the store’s front entrance. Carts will be moved to where the DVD rental racks are now stationed.

A Redbox automated DVD rental machine will be placed in front of the store to replace the store’s movie rental counter.

Stine said Tuesday that Hen House Chicks plan to move into the former liquor store site in Colfax from their shared space with the Quilted Moose at the corner of Main and Spring.

St. John residents will still be able to buy their hooch in town. Ken Johnson of St. John Auto Body renewed his license and bought up his stock of liquor to stay in business.

Steve Gossett did the same with his contract store at Tekoa.

Eric Busch of Richland bought the rights to the Pullman liquor store off a statewide auction for $175,100. The auction included rights to lease space of state-owned stores, apply for a liquor license and buy stock from the liquor board.

Safeway and Dissmore’s will sell liquor in Pullman beginning next month.

Knighten plans to start next week her first new job since the Clinton administration when she takes a position at the Cougar Foodmart.