Sam Gurwitt Photo
Customer Shelton Butler and Jahesh Maher.
When Jayesh Maher opens a new liquor store on State Street, the variety of wines and IPAs won’t be all that helps it stand out among 20-odd competitors in Hamden. Judging based on how he runs his other business now, Maher himself will be a part of the draw.
Maher is the infectiously amicable owner of Zippy’s Gulf on State Street in North Haven, known to most of his customers as “Jay.” When people walk into Zippy’s, yes, most are looking to buy gas, or cigarettes, or lottery tickets. But something other than the nicotine or the adrenaline rush keeps them coming back.
Maher has owned his gas station since October 2017. Since then, he has built up a loyal base if customers.
Zippy’s Gulf.
As he stood behind the counter selling gas, lottery tickets, and cigarettes one recent afternoon, those customers wandered in and out of the store. He knew almost every customer, and greeted each one with a smile. They, in turn, responded — sometimes with a smile, sometimes a fist bump, and sometimes a quip.
“Oh, my boy Jay!” Donald exclaimed as he swung the glass door open. (He preferred not to provide his last name.)
“You my man,” said another as he walked in and greeted Maher with a fist bump.
“Best Liquor Store”
2664 State St.
Maher recently appeared before the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission to receive an approval to open the liquor at 2664 State St. He has negotiated an agreement with Nick Patel of Nick’s Package Store to buy Patel’s liquor license. Once Maher obtains the license, he plans to move the license north by about 50 feet to the building next door.
Patel’s business is at 2644 State St., a small store with limited standing room at the top of a slanted parking lot. That slant, said Patel, has been a problem. It makes it hard for cars to drive into the parking lot and park, and it makes it hard for pedestrians to walk up to the store.
That’s one reason Maher said he does not want to open his new store where Nick’s is. The other is space. For a store of the stature Maher hopes to create, the small box at 2644 will not suffice.
“I’m excited to run the best liquor store in this area. Period,” he said.
He said he plans to have a wider variety of everything than other stores around. Wines will be one focus. IPAs another.
Cheaper beers, he said, have a profit margin of about 20 percent. IPAs can be much more profitable.
He said he wants to have a variety of anything that he carries.
“If you have bourbon, if you have liquor … there might be a bunch of different varieties within that field,” he said.
He said he plans to spend around $300,000 to renovate the space. His goal for opening day: July 30.
He plans to name the store Eagle-View Liquors because of an eagle that has its nest nearby, next to the W.B. Mason. He said he sometimes sees it flying up by the gas station.
Entrepreneur Since 23
Maher grew up in London, and immigrated to the US when he was 16, where he finished up high school at Montville High School. After graduating, he went to community college for a year, then decided it was not for him.
He took a job as a bell boy at Mohegan Sun, where he said he learned the customer service skills that are now so apparent in his gas station. He left after two years because he didn’t like working for other people: “Working for someone else makes it hard to be yourself.”
A friend offered him the opportunity to take over running a gas station in Manchester. So at 23, he got his start as an entrepreneur.
He stayed in Manchester for three years, building up what he said was a good business, until the landlord went bankrupt, forcing him out. He moved with his wife and two twin boys to Memphis, Tenn., where he said it was tough to make it as a small business owner. Then, he got the opportunity to take over the gas station at North Haven’s 414 State St., then a Valero. He moved back up north and took over the space, redoing the walls and decorations and starting to build a customer base.
Now 30, he said he wants to transition out of the gas station business into the liquor store industry. He said he has friends in other parts of Connecticut who own liquor stores. He has watched how they run their businesses to learn the ins and outs of the trade.
“Change Your Happiness”
Running lottery tickets.
When he opens the liquor store, said Maher, he wants to do something more “professional.” When you run a gas station, he said, it’s hard to be professional because so much of the job involves dealing with people in difficult states. Sometimes people will try to steal lottery tickets and he has to call the police. Or they try to carry out a scam with the bitcoin machine by the entrance.
“I have to change your happiness for the day,” he said of people who come into the store. “Either I’m going to make you happy, or you’re already mad and I can’t do shit.” He chuckled.
Most of the customers who came through the store this past Thursday afternoon either handed him a 20 and told him the pump they were at, or bought cigarettes or lottery tickets.
Maher knows his customers and knows the way they play.
“Changing up the way you play?” he asked one as she bought a different ticket from her usual.
Maher acknowledged that some of his customers are addicted to the lottery.
“I definitely have mixed feelings,” he said. “The ones that just do it for fun, you don’t really feel as bad as the ones that do it for addiction, you know. I wouldn’t say it’s the best thing to carry on your conscience every day.”
His job is to facilitate a good transaction and to provide what his customers want, he said. “It’s everyone’s choice if they want to smoke and play the lottery.”
He said he has told two customers that he considers their lottery habits “a little overboard.”
Yet he has had some lottery successes. Hank Kaminski, who works as a supervisor at CT Transit, came in on Thursday. At the end of last year, he said, he won $5,000 from a lottery ticket he bought form Maher.
Hank Kaminski buys another ticket.
Another customer won $100,000 from CT Lottery, Maher said. “It was a boost of morale for me and my customers.”
He said she waited until 2 p.m. to come into the store to check the ticket because she knew that was when Maher would be there. She could have come earlier, but she wanted Maher to be the one to check the ticket for her.
Maher said that a new gas station is going in nearby, but he’s not worried. He predicted people know him and will keep coming back, because he’s “that guy Jay on State Street.” And when a new liquor store opens up down the road, he will still be “that guy Jay on State Street.”
