The exterior of Washington Hill Liquors.

Washington Hill Liquor
616 George Washington Highway
Lincoln, RI

Square footage: 2,500

Years in operation: 19 years

By Sara Capozzi

Conveniently located on George Washington Highway, Washington Hill Liquor has brought its well-rounded selection and friendly service to Lincoln for almost 20 years. Run daily by town native and Owner Kent Maurice and a team of four employees, the store’s customer base is mostly locals, employees of nearby corporations including Amica and Fidelity, and people from Bryant University.

According to Maurice, the space has operated as a package store for about 30 years in this location. “It’s been the same footprint; obviously, we’ve expanded into so many different items according to the demand of the customers,” he said.

Maurice began his career in the restaurant industry and worked in corporate food service for Aramark and Compass Group for several years before pursuing package store ownership. “I grew up in town, so the opportunity to buy it came about,” he said. “I always thought it was a fool-safe business.” Maurice split his time between both careers before dedicating the majority of his time to running the store.

He became involved with the industry through a friend who knew Washington Hill’s previous owner. “He used to work here and had a good rapport with the owner,” Maurice said. “The owner always told him if he was going to sell, he’d give him first choice, and [when the opportunity arose,] my old partner asked me to go in with him.” Maurice and his business partner purchased the store in October 2006 and ran it together until Maurice took sole control of the business about 10 years ago.

Washington Hill offers a diverse selection for shoppers who are mostly from the neighborhood or work nearby and tend to gravitate toward mid- and higher-priced items. “We mostly focus on craft beer and upper-scale wines,” Maurice said. “And we just started carrying THC drinks. That’s a fairly new segment of the market, which is fun and has been popular with customers.”
Other in-demand items are ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages, bourbon, and California and Italian wines. “This store doesn’t sell a lot of $9.99 wines, it’s more higher-end than that,” Maurice said. “We sell a $20 bottle more than we sell a $9.99 bottle.”

Customer perks include regular in-store tastings on new beer, RTDs and wines, with some spirits occasionally added to the mix. Washington Hill also offers customers who buy large orders case discounts. The team stays in touch with customers through its website and social media channels and constantly works to bring in new items and keep its broad selection appealing to its clientele. “I think we fit a lot of variety in here to appease everybody,” Maurice said. “If people come in and ask for something, of course we’ll bring it in the next week or we’ll special order it.”

Over the past two decades, he has gotten to know his client base well. “You definitely see a lot of the same faces and it’s a good, different mix of people,” Maurice said. “We’re friendly with everybody. When you’ve been here for 20 years, people have lived up the road in these suburban houses as long as we’ve been here, so you see the same people, you know what they’re going to get, you talk.”