BEER IN THIS GULL LAKE VARIETY CORNER STORE NO BIG DEAL FOR OWNER JUNG WON LEE

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Jung Won Lee has run the Gull Lake Variety store for 23 years.

And he’s looking forward to retiring in a “few year.”

But he never thought he’d be selling beer in his corner store across from the old Train Station.

“I’ve sold a few (six) packs,” he said today on a drizzling Saturday morning.

That’s after the province allowed him and more than 4,000 other small retailers to sell booze as of two days ago.

He was happy when Ontario gave him Lotto sales.

But this is a bit different.

Jung Won Lee has something new to offer his Gull Lake Variety customers as of Thursday. But it hasn’t led to a lot of booze sales the first three days.

Amid the chips, chocolate and and lottery tickets (some of his biggest sales items) he’s stocked up now with a small display of a few dozen small cases of beer just inside his door at the foot of Brock Street at the intersection of Second Street and just across the tracks from Bethune Drive and Gull Lake Rotary Park.

And one of his small coolers has a few more cases of Coors and other popular brands sitting under the milk shelf.

He says some other small variety stores in town are also doing the same. And that the price isn’t much more than at the Beer Store down Bethune. Thirteen dollars for a six pack.

Lee doesn’t keep long hours, closing most days by 6 p.m. — some days like today at 3 p.m. — and totally on Sundays.

But every little bit helps in a small business just around the corner where the YIG grocery store will as of the end of the month be allowed to sell ten-fold or more what he can.

Retirement may not look so bad says Lee, who says he’s lucky not to have been burglarized much over his two decades.

One of his small coolers has beer chilling next to the cream and chocolate milk.
Retirement won’t likely come sooner with the additional sale of beer, says Jung Won Lee. But every little bit helps the 23-year owner of Gull Lake Variety in Gravenhurst.

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