“My first 10-15 years in the business, a new brand was rare. “The proliferation of brands is staggering,” Selby says. Now, few major suppliers and wholesalers offer an extraordinary number of brands. I knew the heads of all the companies.”Ĭonsolidation at the wholesale and supplier tiers changed that dynamic. “Most of the business was based on personal relationships. “When I first got into the business there were many, many suppliers with few brands, and there were many wholesalers with not a lot of brands,” he says. Selby says Bernard and Ralph Kaplan pioneered the more modern, self-service approach that one sees today in Massachusetts and throughout the country. Bernard and Ralph Kaplan were honored as Market Watch Leaders in 1997. Kaplan’s sons, Bernard and Ralph, followed, opening the first Kappy’s Liquors and setting the stage for the modern group of stores that exists today. Shortly after Prohibition ended, when Harry Kaplan, grandfather of Selby’s wife, Anne, eschewed his 24-hour restaurant in favor of retail. Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits group has always been a family endeavor. Overall, Kappy’s units carry roughly 3,300 wine SKUs, making it the second-largest category behind spirits. Selby’s masterful management of the retail offerings under the Kappy’s name over decades has prompted Market Watch to name him Retailer of the Year for 2021.Īt Kappy’s, wine (Hyannis, Massachusetts wine section pictured) comprises a third of total sales. They do business as a group, but that group strategy limits them to a total of nine stores. The nine stores in the Kappy’s group are owned by Selby’s sons Joe and Steve and nephew Scott Moore. “We took advantage of some of the to move the property into the ownership of the next generation,” he says. Today, Selby still leads the business but doesn’t own any stores himself. But those laws have changed in subsequent years, and the Kappy’s group has evolved alongside the changes. When Selby was named a Market Watch Leader in 2013, he owned three stores, the maximum allowed under Massachusetts laws at the time. I like the hospitality industry probably a little more than I’d like the detail work of practicing law.” “My father-in-law asked me to come into the business and it seemed like the right thing to do,” he says. At that time, the group of stores was run by Ralph and Bernard Kaplan, the former his father-in-law. Despite law school and a pathway that could have taken him in a completely different direction, he joined Kappy’s full time when he graduated in 1974. Selby, CEO of Everett, Massachusetts-based Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits and co-owner of Kappy’s Importing & Distributing Co., has been active in the family business for more than half a century, having started part-time in 1968. “Maybe I’ll just take a day off every once in a while,” he says. But even with that modest idea, he backpedals a bit. But for the longtime beverage alcohol retailer, “cutting back” means switching from six working days a week to five. (Photo by Adam Detour)īob Selby is pondering the idea of cutting back a bit on the job. Massachusetts retailer Kappy’s is an independent business that has thrived in an age of consolidation.īob Selby (pictured) has been with Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits full time since finishing law school in 1974.
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