After 19 months of looking for a job in the banking or sales industry, Bob Hunt and his wife, Kathi, decided to take employment into their own hands.
The couple decided to open a liquor store on Old Shelton Road in the Huntington section of Shelton.
Wednesday, Hunt Wine Castle and Spirits had its grand opening. Kathi Hunt took some time to talk with the Valley Indy about the business venture.
Valley Indy: What made you and your husband decide to start this liquor store?
Kathi Hunt: My husband had been unemployed, worked a long career in banking and sales. And he had lost his job at Webster Bank in August 2008.
You know, 19 months on unemployment. He had a lot of interviews, but with the bad economy we were going through he wasn’t getting any offers.
We’d see younger college, entry level people being hired, and they weren’t giving Bob any offers.
Then I saw this ad in the paper for this liquor store for sale. My dad lives on this street, and I grew up here. I kind of took it as a sign.
I’m a very spiritual person.
He wasn’t very optimistic, but I had a strong sense that I had to follow this.
Valley Indy: What did you do for a living before opening the store?
Kathi Hunt: My background is that I was a nurse for 30 years. But I always had a knack for sales.
I’ve worked in senior housing. I’ve always had a natural knack for math. You have many hats in senior housing. I had to take care of a $400,000 budget over there. the business plan (for the liquor store) had come second nature.
Valley Indy: And you’re also a DJ on the side?
Kathi Hunt: I started a year ago, something I’ve been wanting to do for over 25 years.
So a year ago, my massage therapist was opening a new office in West Haven.
She said you’ve been coming to me for six years wanting to be a DJ. When are you going to do it?
How about if I hire you to come play the music at my grand opening?
I said to Bob I either have to do this, or not do this.
Valley Indy: You’ve been open now for four months. What are some of the surprises you have run into as a new business owner?
Kathi Hunt: Since we’ve been opened, a lot of people told us they used to come here and they stopped for one reason or another.
Since we’ve been here and advertising under new management, we have had hundreds of people tell us how great the store looks.
We remodeled and changed the layout of the store. New carpeting and a new laminate floor.
We’ve stocked up on a lot of things. We try to be customer service based.
If someone says ‘Do you have this beer?’ we order it for them.
We have brought a lot of brand names into the store that people in this store are looking for.
Valley Indy: Any specialties or unique drinks?
Kathi Hunt: We stock Jones Family Farms wines from the winery.
We have a lot of different brand names of beer. When we came in here, there were a lot of basics — Bud, Miller — whatever.
My husband has put in a lot of requests from customers for a lot of odd named beers.
Hunts’ Wine Castle & Spirtis is located in the Huntington Village Plaza on Old Shelton Road. The shop is open Monday through Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 10 .m. to 9 p.m. Find out more information on the shop’s Facebook page.
