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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Monday, June 15, 2009 11:54 AM

Photo by Courtney Servaes/The Ottawa Herald

Brandon and Glenda Plaschka have owned Plaschka & Kramer Liquor Store and Princeton Quick Stop, 1455 U.S. 59, since 2006. After taking over the stores, one of the first projects was connecting the two businesses. A beer cave, cigar humidor and breakfast burritos are many customers’ favorite features of the stores, Brandon Plaschka said.

Family-owned liquor store has unique features

By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer

PRINCETON — Going to work is a chance to brighten others’ days for Brandon Plaschka.

“It gives me a chance to affect other people’s lives,” the co-owner of Plaschka & Kramer Liquor Store and Princeton Quick Stop said.

And since he took over the stores with his wife, Glenda, in 2006, Plaschka has come to know the customers and employees of the businesses at 1455 U.S. 59.

“I like to draw people out and poke them if they’re having a bad day,” he said. “Sometimes it works in reverse. Sometimes they help me when I’m having a bad day.”

Although the Kramer family, who opened the county’s first liqour store in 1985 after Franklin County changed from a dry to wet county, no longer is involved with the liquor store, Plaschka said it was important to his family and the community that the name of the store stay.

“Customers trusted the name,” he said. “We didn’t want to change a lot but modernize as much as we can.”

Plaschka’s family has been a part of the business for more than two decades.

“We tried to hang on to the past as much as we could,” he said.

After purchasing the liquor store in January 2006 and the convenience store in December of the same year, one of the first projects was connecting the two stores.

Customers now can enter one store and walk to the other without going outside.

“It saves a lot of walking around,” Plaschka said.

Plaschka said many customers comment on the liquor store’s beer cave, which is a large walk-in cooler that contains cases of beer.

“It’s the only one you’ll find in Franklin County,” he said.

The area connecting the two stores houses a humidor — another distinct feature for customers. The humidor is a small room with constant humidity that stores cigars.

But the convenience store also possesses some unique qualities, Plaschka said.

The store recently began making its own brand of pizza and makes its own breakfast burritos.

“A lot of people seem to like the breakfast burritos,” Plaschka said.

Collectively, the Plaschkas’ convenience and liquor stores are known as Seven Cedars, after 700-year-old cedar trees that were in Plaschka’s front yard.

He hopes the name is a marketing tool and will attract additional customers.

“We’re really trying to build an image and a destination,” Plaschka said.

Despite the name and connection of the buildings, the businesses aren’t that similar, and typically don’t share employees, he said.

“We try to keep them as separate as possible,” Plaschka said. “They’re two completely different types of businesses.”

But Plaschka’s connections with customers, employees and the community don’t differ much from the two stores.

“The loyalty we’ve received from customers and employees is out of this world,” he said. “We want the town to feel like it owns a part of the businesses.”

Jenalea Myers can be e-mailed at jmyers@ottawaherald.com.

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Family-owned liquor store has unique features

By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.