Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, March 21, 2014
www.issaquahreporter.com
Issaquah man dies in crash of helicopter
WINE WOES Small shops hurt by hard liquor prohibition Sammamish residents Allen and Janet Bechtel have put their retirement money into their World of Wines shop in Redmond. KELLY MONTGOMERY, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter. BY KELLY MONTGOMERY ISSAQUAH/SAMMAMISH REPORTER
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ince Washington state privatized the sale of hard liquor in 2012, small speciality shops have suffered, with many going out of business altogether. Allen and Janet Bechtel of Sammamish, who own World of Wines, a small wine shop in Redmond, say that if something doesn’t change in the speciality beer and wine industry, they too will be forced to close their doors. “Corporate America and high-paid lobbyists put a lot of pressure on our elected representatives,” Janet said. “But if there’s one time when small, family-owned business owners need our representatives to work for us, this is it.” Since the Costco initiative two years ago, corporate America has taken over the liquor industry, Janet said. “Prices have gone up, public safety has gone down, and small, family-owned businesses like ours have gone out of business,” she said. What many people didn’t realize about Initiative 1183, the couple said, is it would, “Require that a retail store must have 10,000 square feet or more of fully enclosed retail space within a single structure in order to get a license to sell liquor.” The goal was to keep hard liquor out of neighborhood convenience stores. With the implementation of Initiative 1183, World of Wines, which is approximately 8,000 square feet, is unable to sell liquor, and when customers can one-stop-shop for
Allen Bechtel tastes from 200 to 300 wines a week to find the right selection for his shelves. KELLY MONTGOMERY, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter.
hard alcohol and wine at their neighborhood grocery store, the small speciality shops become less appealing. “Everybody completely forgot that there are small, footprint stores like us, that that’s all we sell,” Janet said. “We don’t have problems with teenagers coming in here trying to buy things with a fake I.D.” Janet said that it’s no secret that issues involving alcohol theft are happening in the grocery stores, and not in small speciality shops like their own. “It’s a huge problem,” she said. “Whereas stores like us would not have had a problem.” Allen said they have stayed afloat because they carry different products than the grocery stores, such as small production wineries that larger businesses refuse to or
cannot carry. “I taste about 200 to 300 wines a week,” Allen said, who turned his wine collecting hobby into a full-time, post-retirement passion. “I choose to bring in things that I personally like. Every wine in this store has been tasted…we will not put it on the shelf if we ourselves would not drink it ourselves.” With that philosophy, World of Wines has maintained loyal and familiar customers. However, that group may not be enough to keep them in business. Two small speciality shops in Redmond have gone out of business in the last two years, and according to a December article in the Seattle Times, 60 percent of former and now private Washington state liquor stores have shut down as well. “The law that passed gave preferential pricing to volume stores like Costco and BevMo and Safeway,” Janet said. “So what that did to people like us, we now pay more then they do for our products. Which is why it’s so important for us to buy stuff that they don’t carry, because we can’t compete with their price.” But the Bechtels still have hope. House Bill 5731 would allow beer or wine speciality shop licensees to sell products made by distillers that produce 60,000 gallons or less of spirits per year. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. The initiative was overwhelming passed by the Senate, but got stuck in the House. “We don’t have the same customers and SEE WINE WOES, 3
The pilot of the helicopter that crashed near Seattle Center on Tuesday morning was a resident of Issaquah. Gary Pfitzner, 59, was one of two men who died in the crash near the Space Needle. According to KOMO News, Pfitzner was a contract pilot for the news organization, and was also employed by the helicopter leasing company that operates the news chopper as well as a familiar sight to KOMO News employees. "He always had a smile on his face," said KOMO's Molly Shen. "He loved what he did, loved to be able to fly and be up there above the city and see things from a perspective that most of us don't get to see." Emergency personnel immediately rushed to the scene at the height of the morning commute. The second man who died was Bill Strothman, 62, of Bothell, a longtime station photographer who worked as a contractor for KOMO. Two cars and a pickup truck on Broad Street were struck in the crash. Occupants of two vehicles were able to escape without injury, but the driver of a third vehicle was badly burned. Witnesses said the 38-yearold man could be seen running from his car with his clothing on fire, and he was extinguished by officers at the scene. Hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg says the man suffered burns on up to 20 percent of his body and likely will require surgery.