First, the good news: Sigel's at the Shops at Legacy in Plano is having a big sale, with 25 percent off everything, including wine, spirits, beer and glassware. The bad news: The liquor store will be gone for good on July 26.
Spokesman Jasper Russo says the store was facing a rent hike it could not handle. "Our original lease was up for renewal, and they handed us a rent increase that was just shocking," he says.
"Remember when we opened that store in 2006, nothing was built out. We got a good lease. But eight years later, you've got Toyota coming in, big campuses, residential. They can get a lot more money for the space."
Sigel's is nonetheless committed to Collin County, and it even opened a warehouse in Anna to stock restaurants in the northern suburbs.
"Plano was our northern outpost, and it still will be," Russo says. "We're in the process of finalizing a lease on another location on the east side of Plano. Our plan was to have another store open. We'd preferred to have moved seamlessly from one store to the other."
In May, Sigel's renowned cheesemonger, Theresa Magree, retired, and the chain eliminated the cheese-deli component it had going at a couple of its stores, including the Shops at Legacy.
"We used to taste wine in that store on the weekends," Russo says. "At first it was fine, until restaurants nearby started handing out beepers to tell customers when their table was ready. We became the 'green room.' People would come in and sip wine until their table was ready with no intention of shopping, and we had to stop that."
The store has to be vacated by July 31, but July 26 will be the last day of business.
Shops at Legacy will soon be without a Sigel's liquor store.
