Gateway Liquors

As a dedicated Unilocaler and an active member of the whiskey connoisseur community, I spend a lot of time in stores and restaurants getting to know the owners, managers and staff of various establishments. I spend a particularly large percentage of my free time in bars and liquor stores plugging various events. Most of these experiences are positive. People usually try their best to serve their customers. BUT Gateway Liquors tried their best to do the opposite.
I first went to Gateway Liquors because it was the Liquor Store closest to my home. To gauge the quality of a liquor store I always look for a couple of different hard to find bottles and I check the prices of a few particular bottles. What I found was that they did have some of the harder to find bottles but the prices on everything started at 20% more than the average. But the high end bottles were exceptionally expensive. However, I started talking to the clerk named NJ and I found that he was fun and accommodating. So since this is the closest store to my house and I liked the Clerk, I started buying my regular bottles there. I must have bought 30 or 40 regular bottles in the $ 30-​$ 70 each range. I was overpaying but I value the personal relationships.
I then met the owner and explained to him some of the rarer bottles that I am looking for and asked him to get them for me. At the same time, I brought some of these bottles with me and he drank them with me. He then promised to call me when they came in. I even went on his behalf to a tasting by the master distiller of Four Roses and got the owner and one of the clerks autographed bottles. It cost me time and bottles of my own to do that for them.
Then… Since I know his liquor reps, they called me to tell me when the rare stuff like George T. Stagg, Pappy Van Winkle, Sazerac and others arrived at his store. Then one of the other clerks confirmed that they arrived and the owner took them right to his office. But then I spoke to the owner and he lied right to my face. He told me that he is still trying to get some in and would call me. I kept asking and he kept lying. So I stopped buying my base level bottles there.
Now I wouldn’t care if he had told me that he had better customers and he was saving them for his clients. It would be ok if he had said from the beginning that he wanted to keep them all and maybe we would drink them someday… the same way that we drank mine… Honesty is always the best business policy. Always.
BUT it is such poor service and business to make promises to your customers, take their generosity, and then blatantly choose not to keep those promises. It turns out that another friend of mine actually bought from the Owner the bottles that I ordered. And that is why I am writing this review.
And so, Gateway Liquors was only worth buying your liquor from because it was close and the people who worked there seemed genuine and cool. But they are not cool. AND they no longer sell even the regularly available high end liquor to customers. Add to that that their liquor is between 30% and 200% above the same bottles in other stores and you have a loser of a business.
For quality stores with good prices and great selections go to:
Spirits365 @ 10 570 Gandy Blvd N St Petersburg, FL 33 702,
ABC Fine Wine & Spirits on 4^th Street. (Ask for Liz)
S&R Discount Beverage (Ask for Kenny) @ 4900 E Bay Dr Clearwater, FL 33 764
Pappy’s Liquors (ask for Rick) @ 6406 Gulf Blvd St Pete Beach, FL 33 706
Luekens Liquors @ 23 025 US-​19 Clearwater, FL 33 759
& Universal Fine Wine and Spirits (Ask for Rob) @ 1542 US-​19 Holiday, FL 34 691
And tell them Chris sent you. These are real stores worth visiting.

For a small store this place has a lot of variety.
Liquor 43? No problem. Guinness, got it. Nice selection of bourbons and tequilas, we’re in.
Helpful staff (although there are definitely some «cougar» hunters here) Always willing to offer advice (if not a dinner date LOL) Reasonable priced, I find it a great addition to the neighborhood.

Needed tequila and LOTS of it. No, just kidding. Just needed some for margaritas and HEY! A liquor store next to Publix. Had no idea this was here. We thought we were going to have to drive around to look for the nearest. So it is in a VERY convenient location. I don’t know about how their prices compare with the other stores around as I don’t frequent liquor stores often. But the store was clean, prices clearly visible on everything and the guy inside was friendly enough.