BFT 2019 CPC Lowcountry Yellow Pages

178 PEST
LOWCOUNTRY
PROFILE
Bill Massalon was a retail grocery man
from the Charleston, SC area who had run
several stores at a young age. When an
opportunity presented itself to open a
store of his own he jumped at the chance
and bought his first store, the Shell Point
Red & White. The store was destroyed by a
fire and Massalon opened Bill’s Lady’s
Island Red & White on Lady’s Island, SC.
Massalon opened the store early one
morning back in the 1980’s to find that his
refrigeration system had failed over the
night and he had melted ice cream
flowing from his freezers onto the floor
and waiting to be mopped up. Over the
years many of Massalon’s customers had
been asking him if he would consider
opening a liquor store so they could do all
their shopping at one place.
He never put much thought into this
idea.
After the last freezer incident Massalon
started thinking that nuisances like this
probably did not occur in liquor stores. So
in 1980, Massalon opened a small attached
liquor store next door to the Red & White
just to see how it would go. He installed a
door bell outside the liquor store customers
could ring for service. Grocery store
manager Woody Dantzler would then walk
next door to sell a bottle or two of liquor,
lock up, then return to the grocery store.
But eventually, Dantzler seemed to be
spending all of his time in the liquor store.
Massalon took notice, sold the grocery
stores and concentrated on expanding his
liquor business.
Not long after, Massalon relocated to a
larger store in Port Royal, near the Piggly
Wiggly shopping center. Then came a
second store across town off of U.S. 21, and
then a third on Lady’s Island, where he
built an 11,000-square-foot, freestanding
store in the Winn Dixie shopping center to
help warehouse his inventory.
A few years later a fire within the
shopping center in Port Royal did severe
damage to the store there so Massalon
decided to move the license from there
Bill Massalon
(closing that store) to a new location in
Summerville. This is the second freestanding
store with a large warehouse. This store
has helped reach out to expand the
wholesale business from the Summerville
and Charleston area all the way through
Walterboro and back to Beaufort. Again, a
few years later in 2001, Massalon moved
his other license from Beaufort to the
Bluffton area and opened a new store in
Kitties Crossing Shopping Center. This
expanded the wholesale business from
Beaufort to Hilton Head and all the way to
the Georgia state line.
At Massalon’s Lady’s Island store,
neighboring businesses have come and
gone, including a Winn Dixie supermarket
in a space now occupied by another
longtime local staple, Grayco Home Center.
South Carolina law was changed in 2006
to allow free pour in restaurants and bars,
displacing mini bottles, and changing
inventory and pricing practices for
wholesalers like Bill’s Liquors. On the retail
side, product lines are more diverse than
ever. That means more choices for customers
but more challenges for sellers — once
distillers began infusing flavors into vodka,
for example, Massalon had to find shelf
space for dozens of varieties in a niche
once devoted to only four or five.
Despite new laws and new technology,
Massalon says Bill’s Liquors and Fine Wine
still wins and retains customers the
old-fashioned way — through a combination
of convenient locations, low prices
and great customer service.
“You know the saying — the customer
is always right,” Massalon said. “It’s true, so
everything we do is aimed at putting them
first.”
Massalon said rumors of his retirement
are greatly exaggerated. Now that sons
Doug and Alton own shares of the
business, Bill has cut back on his work
hours … but only a bit. Most days, he can
be found on the floor engaging customers,
or poring over inventory figures in the
upstairs office.
“Our father has taught us many things
in this business and life in general,” Doug
Massalon said. “It will be hard when the
day comes and he fully retires. It is nice
having his help and knowledge.”
When asked “What was the most
important thing about these stores that
Bill has taught you?” Douglas Massalon
stated, “It would have to be to be fair,
genuine, courteous, and most important
treat all of our customers, employees and
the community exactly how we would like
to be treated.”
H Celebrating 25 Years H
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Photo by Eric Horan