One Stop Liquor’s Owner Nick Yuzbasioglu and Store Manager Emre Sariyildiz.

One Stop Liquor
97 Railroad Street
Manville, RI

Square footage: 4,000

Years in operation: 31 years

By Sara Capozzi

One Stop Liquor has become a fixture in the close-knit village of Manville over its past three decades of business. The 3,000-square-foot store, with an additional 1,000 feet for storage, is owned and run by husband and wife Nick and Shannon Yuzbasioglu, who purchased the location in 1993. At the time, Shannon’s parents owned the neighboring pizza restaurant and the couple visited the store often, eventually leading to Shannon’s idea to go into the package store industry.

“My in-laws owned the pizza place and it was really hard work,” Yuzbasioglu remembered. “Every time my wife went into the liquor store, she saw it was a very easy business and she said, ‘I’m going to buy that store.’”

He owned a North Providence restaurant called Speedy Pizza at the time and thought serving clientele at a package store seemed preferable to handling customer service on premise, so when the store became available, the couple purchased it right away. Because the previous owners had gone out of business, there were only a few shelves inside and no inventory.

“I bought it and I built it from scratch,” Yuzbasioglu said. The couple gradually built up their SKUs and they’ve been serving the village ever since. “It’s been 31 years and we’re serving the same families. It used to be their grandfathers and grandmothers that came here, then their sons and daughters and now their grandsons and granddaughters or nephews or nieces are coming in. I’ve known these same families for more than 42 years.”

Manville is a village in the town of Lincoln with a large French Canadian population who originally hailed from Quebec. During the Industrial Revolution, settlers were drawn to the busy manufacturing village to work at the mills that were located on the village’s Blackstone River. The descendants of those same families make up a significant portion of the hamlet’s current population of 3,600.

One Stop prioritizes friendly customer service and its relationships with its regular customer base who are 99% regulars, according to Store Manager Emre Sariyildiz. “Pretty much in this town, everybody knows each other,” he said. “They know if they want something, they can just tell us and we’re always talking with them about what they like and what they’re looking for.”

The team keeps its inventory stocked with a well-rounded mix of products they know their customers gravitate toward, including craft beer, especially IPAs and sours.

Yuzbasioglu said he’s always working to stay current on the latest trends and new products. “This is now a very dynamic business,” he said. “Until eight years to 10 years ago, everything was classic. Budweiser, Coors, Rolling Rock, the major names. Now, 80% of the products you see here are new.”

While some things change, the couple’s dedication to their community remains. “My wife is here every morning,” Yuzbasioglu said. “We’ve never missed one day in 31 years except the day of my daughter’s wedding. Every day the store is open ‘on promise.’”