It’s not easy to take over a landmark establishment and make longtime customers happy, but the leaders of Lakeside Liquor are ready to try.
After serving the St. Joseph community for seven decades, Lambrecht’s Liquor Store owner Dan Lambrecht recently decided it was time for the business to transition to someone new. That’s exactly the opportunity Jaspinder “Jazz” Singh was looking for.
Jazz is the manager of the Lakeside Liquor stores in Stevensville, Riverside, and soon St. Joseph. His father, Harbhajan Singh or “Mr. Singh” as he is known, owns those locations plus two area gas stations. Jazz said he’s been looking for opportunities to continue growing the brand in Southwest Michigan and becoming a larger part of the community. He said Lambrecht’s fit their growth plan and that’s why they are making the purchase.
“It’s just, this is a community I want to be a part of. I love this region. My dad has been in the gas station business and we opened up our first liquor store in Stephensville. Then we moved on to Riverside and I really want to expand in this (St. Joseph) community. I’m selling liquor, but I want to serve this community.”
Singh said the closing date for the sale is within the next two weeks. Shortly after they will make some minor changes in the layout of the store and expand some beverage options.
“ We will be changing the layout of the business. They already have a focus on wine and craft beer and domestic beer. We won’t shift away from that, but we will be adding more to the bourbon side of things and more to the spirits (selection). We will still be maintaining the cigar collection and everything. I actually hope to learn from and bring that over to my other businesses as well.”
Singh takes pride in operating professional, customer-focused, fun establishments.
“We are gentle and kind to everyone. We also like to have fun, as you can see from our Facebook. We believe in fair pricing and treating everyone fairly. You know, from the customer that’s spending a dollar to the customer who has a bigger bank balance and is spending a lot of money. I just want people to know that we’re here to serve them.”
It’s that customer service aspect Singh said is a differentiator.
“We really believe in a few things when it comes to customer service. Service for us, it means that we go above and beyond customers, our family.”
