Edmonds opens Shine Runners

Opening a liquor store “wasn’t on the radar, really,” for Dennis Edmonds, who works full-time in the City of Holton’s water and wastewater department.

“I just kind of found out about the opportunity through the grapevine and just checked into it,” said Edmonds, a city employee for almost 15 years. “It seemed like maybe it was something that could be a fun adventure.”

But on Wednesday, July 29, Edmonds opened Shine Runners at 204 Arizona Ave. — home of the former Southside Liquor store — and is looking forward to the “adventure” of running a liquor store.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback so far from the community about the store and the overhauling that’s happened,” Edmonds said. “Now we’ve just got to get enough sales to keep building the inventory.”

The new store’s name stems from mobile “whiskey tastings” that Edmonds had during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he and his father-in-law would “put some whiskey in little mason jars and deliver it around to friends.”

“It would be about a 200-mile round trip, and my father-in-law would come in and say, ‘Oh, you’re running ‘shine today?’” he said, referring to a shortened name for “moonshine.” “As we were trying to think of a name, that’s what just kind of stuck.”

Edmonds said he is a fan of bourbon whiskey and would like to expand the product line in that part of the store, but noted he’d like to build up a good inventory in other types of spirits, as well as beer and wine.

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