Sam’s Bottle Shop to Shutter In February

The store began as the Blue Light, then scaled back as Sam’s Quik Shop, then expanded with a second location called Sam’s Bottle Shop, its metamorphosis mirroring changes in the world around it—gas station, drive-in grill, convenience store, craft beer shop. 

Now, owner John Boy Jr. says, the South Durham shop will close for good on February 11, drawing a long family legacy to a close. The reason, Boy Jr. tells the INDY, is simply that it’s time to retire. 

“I’ve been more than blessed to have the opportunity to work 40 of the more than 80 years of this family business,” Boy Jr. said in a video posted yesterday on the Sam’s Bottle Shop Facebook page. “I’ve met more customers, industry professionals, and made many friends over these years. I can’t say how much I appreciate all the love you’ve showed to us over the years. Saying goodbye is very very difficult.”

The Boy family opened the Erwin Road gas station in 1946 and added the Blue Light, a restaurant and popular hangout spot for teenagers, in 1949. As the draw of drive-in spots began to dwindle, owner John Boy closed the restaurant in 1974 and converted it into Sam’s Quik Shop, a convenience store with video rentals, magazines, and beer. He passed on ownership to his son a decade or so later, although Boy Jr. tells the INDY that the family handoff was gradual, and it’s hard to put an exact date to it. 

Though he was responsible for transforming the Quik Shop into the Triangle’s craft beer lodestar, Boy Jr. also gave credit to his mother, Geraldine (more commonly known as Gerry), for her pioneering beer curation. 

“She was stocking stuff like Orval [trappist ale] and Ayinger Celebrator [doppelbock] in the late 70s,” Boy Jr. told the INDY in 2014, when the shop added the second location off NC Highway 54. “She just knew … she could see it.” 

Over the years, the Quik Shop location—unassuming but eclectic—drew locals looking for long afternoon hangs, as well as passersby looking to score hard-to-find imports. In 2018, after initially denying Herald-Sun reports of a sale, Boy Jr. sold the property to Wilmorite Construction for $5 million. The property is now a seven-story student housing complex called Blue Light Living, in homage to ownership. 

The two-story Bottle Shop had less original charm than its counterpart, though it did boast a bigger inventory, with an impressive 1,600 cans, and rooftop for drinking. In the past month, its hours had become more abbreviated, with Mondays off and a 7 p.m. closing time.

Boy Jr. says the change in hours was just due to slow winter business, and that he’s been gradually tapering things off. Still, he says, he’s excited to have a couple of closing parties this month and have community members stop by to pour one last craft beer out. 

“[The response] has been really warm and welcoming,” Boy Jr. says. “I think people get it—that it’s just time.”

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