Going out of business was such great business for Stoney’s Fine Wines & Market that its owner has decided to keep the shop open as a discount outlet. Owner Stone Savage decided in January to close the store on Greenville Avenue because of slow business and discouraging December sales. But since putting up a banner to announce the going-out-of-business sale and 30-percent mark downs, "people are just coming out of the woodwork," said Diana Savage, the owner’s wife.
So Savage, who opened the original Stoney’s on Harry Hines Boulevard in 1998, is buying closeouts from wine distributors and selling everything at 30 percent off all the time. "As one of our customers put it, Stoney has a great palate for inexpensive wine," Diana Savage said.
The Savages have asked their most loyal cutsomers to suggest a new name for the store, which has to include "Stoney" and "wine," and somehow indicate that it’s a discount store, "without saying it outright," Diana Savage said. The store, which had sold beer, liquor and some gourmet food items, is strictly wine now. Customers of the reinvented store will find a sparser atmosphere as well. "We thought we were going out of business, so we sold everything," she said, including all of the coolers, shelves and cabinets.
