Kansas town finally gets a liquor store, but many won’t shop there till after dark

Businessman Bruce Warren describes a third of his hometown’s three-block Main Street as “vacant buildings” and “vacant buildings that are falling down.”

That’s why Warren, whose Tarp Pro is along the business stretch of Main Street, was happy to welcome new neighbor J & J Pit Stop at 140 N. Main St. — the first-ever liquor store in this town about an hour southwest of Wichita.

“You’re glad like hell that anybody opens a door on a business,” Warren said.

Attica, founded in 1884, had a population of 637 at last count but once was up to about 3,000 people.

“The more that people shop local, the more it helps the community, and the more the community can start coming back,” Warren said.

The store wasn’t universally welcomed.

“Oh, at the beginning, there was talk about getting a petition up to stop it,” said Mayor Alan Allenbach, who is community president of Citizens State Bank down the street from J & J.

Allenbach is in favor of the store.

“It brings people into town,” he said. “We’ll get some taxes off of it.”

Still, J & J owners Judy and Jay Spengler were stealthy with the city while opening the store.

“I got the state license first, then I went over and talked to the city because I knew they were going to try to oppose it,” Judy Spengler said. “I knew if I got the state license first, there was nothin’ they could do.”

The Spenglers weren’t even straight with Warren, their across-the-street neighbor.

“Jay told me all along it was going to be a coffee shop,” Warren said.

Jay Spengler says he said it with a wink.

He said the store has been a surprise to many.

“We’ve even had a lot of customers ask, ‘How did you get this pulled off with the city?’ ”

Cheers to the poll

The Spenglers, who don’t drink, said they didn’t set out to open a liquor store. Partly, they wanted to open a business that their sons could one day take over.

They bought the barnlike building that used to be home to the Dinner Bell restaurant, which is next to the post office Judy Spengler used to run.

Then the Spenglers took a poll of residents.

“We wanted to know . . . what kind of business they wanted and then just get people excited about something,” Judy Spengler said. “Ninety five percent of them said liquor store.”

Attica residents and others in surrounding areas used to have to drive to places such as Sharon or Anthony to buy liquor.

Not everyone was happy to see that change, or at least didn’t want to appear happy.

Before J & J opened on June 1, Jay Spengler said a local minister stopped by to see his wife.

“Popped his head in the door one day when she was here and told her, ‘I pray your business fails.’ ”

“I said, ‘God bless you,’ ” Judy Spengler recalled, “and let him walk out the door.”

She said customers often wait until the few other businesses on Main Street close before they’ll stop in the store.

“Once it gets dark, you get more and more people,” she said.

That’s also why they still sometimes shop at liquor stores outside of Attica.

“They don’t want nosy ol’ neighbors watching them,” Warren said.

St. Leo resident Kevin Banks, on the other hand, said it’s “awesome” that J & J has opened.

“I ain’t gotta go to Harper or Kingman to get beer,” he said. “If I’m coming through I could just pick it up. Of course, I’d like a liquor store in every town.”

One shopper didn’t want to give his name for this story, but he’s now a J & J regular because Judy Spengler is stocking Coors in aluminum bottles with a twist-off top for him.

“I’ve been coming back every Friday,” he said. “I want to support them.”

Judy Spengler said Attica won’t change simply because its residents can now buy liquor.

“They’re been drinking for years. . . . Now it’s just more convenient.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2018 at 5:42 PM.