After 50 plus years in the liquor business, Glocester’s Kitson will sell stores & retire

GLOCESTER – After more than 50 years in the business, Kevin Kitson, owner of both Chepachet Village Wine & Spirits and Kitson’s Liquors in Harmony, is selling both businesses and retiring.

“The clock is ticking,” said Kitson, 64. “I’m perfectly healthy. Lost some weight, in fact, but I’m trying to focus on my well being and talking to my wife in detail about what really matters. If I work two more years, what’s it going to do for me? What’s it going to do for my family? They’re both negatives.”

He said that he lost some close friends in the last year or so, and it has made him think about what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

“When you have the opportunity to make a sale on your business that makes sense, it’s time,” said Kitson.

The liquor business is not without its share of challenges, he said, including the recent uptick in the cannabis sales, among other things.

“People are becoming more health conscious as well,” Kitson said.

Regardless, Kitson’s Liquors has done very well, he said, noting that the main store in Chepachet Village has become a “destination store,” where numerous selections are available in liquors, beers and wines, including a separate section which contains high-end products, unique to the area.

A 1979 Ponaganset High School grad, Kitson grew up working many hours in his father Robert F. Kitson’s liquor store, Christy’s in Cranston. At 21, he jumped in with both feet, buying what was then Henry’s Liquors at 677 Putnam Pike in Harmony in 1981. Shortly after, the Kitsons sold their Cranston store and bought what was Farnum’s Liquors in the center of Chepachet Village at 1184 Putnam Pike in 1988.

“We have multiplied our business five times since that location,” said Kitson. “The town wasn’t being serviced properly by our mom and pop stores, so we knew if we wanted to go forward, the only way to do that was to expand.”

The opportunity presented itself when the former state police barracks, also near the center of Chepachet Village at 1116 Putnam Pike, went up for sale. In 2017, Kitson, along with Debbie and Howard Clift, who own several liquor stores in Cranston and Warwick, bought it, tore it down and constructed the modern facility which exists now as Chepachet Village Wine and Spirits.

“We teemed up with some dear friends of ours to buy it and build this beautiful building,” Kitson said. “It was a gamble. We went from 2,200-square-feet to 6,200-square-feet. It was a risk, but it was a risk worth taking.”

The move allowed Kitson to better serve customers by offering more merchandise at more competitive prices by buying in bulk with room for storage. Rhode Island wholesalers encourage liquor stores to buy in volume by offering incentives.

“The price gets better as you buy bigger,” he explained. “The smaller stores do suffer in that respect.”

Asked if he always wanted to go into the liquor business, Kitson said that he once tried out for the state police. He completed the training, but after talking the future over with his father, decided to stay where he was.

“I decided to stay in the liquor business, and I was successful,” Kitson said. “I was very fortunate. I took a liking to the business, thought it was a lot of fun… always something different.”

His experience over the years has also brought him firsthand knowledge of his products, especially wine.

“When I go to a restaurant, they hand me the wine list,” said Kitson. “I know every bottle that’s on there and what they taste like. That’s kind of cool in itself.”

Not surprisingly, customers come to Kitson for advice in choosing not only wines, but other spirits as well. Once he knows what they want, he offers up possibilities that he knows will meet their expectations. As a result, he has created a bevy of loyal customers.

Growing up in town didn’t hurt either. It was a place where he wanted to stay and raise a family.

“I grew up in Glocester,” Kitson said. “I used to ride up and down Main Street on my 10 speed with Joe Danti on his paper route. We’d stop at Brown & Hopkins, and I’d get my pepperoni sticks. We’d eat them riding down Main Street, right in the center. There were no cars.”

Asked what he will miss the most, Kitson said “the people – the relationships you build over the years. That’s the hard part. The business is the business, but you get to know everybody and their kids. Customers come into the store now that I used to give lollipops to. You get to know the families well.”

Much of his own family is heavily involved in the business of liquors. His wife Lisa is the owner of Kitson’s. His son, Steven, is the general manager at Chepachet Liquors and Wine, while his son-in-law, Ryan Catullo, is the general manager at Kitson’s Liquors. His son Steven is set to open his own store in Scituate, Chopmist Hill Liquors.

New owners, Ankit and Sanalben Patel, have agreed to keep employees on, a decision that was important to Kitson.

“They approached us,” he said. “They recognized what we’re doing here, and they are in the business of buying businesses. They have the resources to make it happen. At this point in our lives, it made sense to make the move.”

Kitson has been active in the community for many years, as a member of various town boards and commissions, president of the Glocester Business Association, and currently, as a member of the Juvenile Hearing Board, a position he has held for more than 25 years. Additionally, his stores have a long history of generously sponsoring local programs and teams. In recalling his long career in Glocester, Kitson made a point of recognizing the town department heads and chief of police, as well as town clerk for their help over the years, being especially helpful with the upcoming transition of the business.

He said retirement will mean somewhat slowing down, but not entirely.

“I’m not a person to sit around,” said Kitson. “I’m an active person. My wife and I own Kitson Property Management. We manage Chopmist Hill Mobile Home Park. We’ve been doing that for over 20 years.”

That will continue, he said, and there are plans in the works to expand the 100 mobile home facility and possibly add a few more property management locations. He also plans on putting in more family time. His daughter Lauren Catullo is a teacher at Isaac Paine School in Foster. His other son Michael is a North Providence police officer. Altogether, there are eight grandchildren.

“More importantly, my wife and I plan on spending more time with the grandkids,” said Kitson. “I love them all. We’re going to go to some of their baseball games. We’re going to do some traveling. We’re going to do exactly what people are supposed to do when they retire and not sit around.”