Total Wine & More liquor superstore to open in Nora

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Liquor superstore chain Total Wine & More is set to open its first Indiana store Nov. 4 in the Nora Corners Shopping Center at 1460 E. 86th St.

The store will occupy just over 26,000 square feet in a portion of what was formerly a Marsh supermarket. An Aldi grocery store occupies the other portion of the space.

Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Total Wine & More operates 212 stores on the East Coast, the Midwest and Western U.S. The Nora location is a typical size for the chain, whose stores carry between 8,000 and 10,000 types of wine as well as 3,000 to 4,000 types of both beer and spirits. The stores also carry a selection of cigars, glassware, gifts, food and other items.

As is standard for the chain, the Nora store will also include beer and wine tasting areas, a cigar humidor and a room for customer classes and events, including tasting sessions led by well-known beer, wine and spirits producers via live video.

Total Wine & More also makes the classroom available at no cost to community groups that need a meeting space.

“We’re not the corner liquor store,” said Edward Cooper, vice president of public affairs and community relations for Total Wine & More. “For us, it’s all about a customer experience.”

When the Nora store opens, Indiana will become the 26th state in which Total Wine & More operates. The company doesn’t have firm plans to open additional Indiana stores, Cooper said, but it is “looking for opportunities” and “potentially there will be others.”

Total Wine & More got its start in 1991 when brothers David and Robert Trone opened a 1,000-square-foot package store in Delaware. The brothers, who still own the company, expanded over time to other East Coast states, later branching out to the Midwest and West.

Because of its out-of-state ownership, Total Wine & More had to sue the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission in order to win the right to open a store here.

The commission denied Total Wine & More’s liquor permit application in March, citing a state law that it said prohibited it from issuing a retail permit to any company unless at least 60% of the company’s common stock is owned by people who have lived in Indiana for five years.

Total Wine & More sued the commission days later in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, saying that the permit denial violated the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause.

The case was resolved in July when Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled in the retailer’s favor.

In other news this week:

— Downtown Indy Inc. and the Arts Council of Indianapolis will present the season’s final Downtown Arts Market from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 15 on Monument Circle. The event includes more than 20 vendors offering handmade masks, jewelry, home décor, paintings, ceramics, clothing and other items. It also includes a beer and wine garden.

— The Mexican restaurant Nada, at 11 W. Maryland St., reopened Sept. 30 for dinner-only service. The restaurant had been closed since mid-March because of the pandemic. Current hours are 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A restaurant representative told IBJ that Nada will wait to see what business is like before deciding whether to add back its lunch service. Nada also operatesin the Ohio cities of Cincinnati and Columbus and in Nashville, Tennessee and North Bethesda, Maryland.

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16 thoughts on “Total Wine & More liquor superstore to open in Nora

  1. Visiting one of their stores is almost like going to an event. I have never seen anything like it. I am all for buying local, and I try to whenever I can. But, the atmosphere, and the savings, are overwhelming. I highly recommend joining their club. I was surprised when they when were allowed to open in Indiana. The only other store I know of who comes close to them on savings is, believe it or not, Kroger.

  2. I am always looking for a store that carries a large wine selection. I love Kahn’s and will definitely check out Total Wine, but come on – everything is north. There are a lot of people on the southside who love wine too. I know of the perfect location for their next store – the old Marsh building on State Rd 135 just south of Stones Crossing Rd.

    1. Unfortunately the south side is missing one big thing: people. There’s far more people on Indy’s north side + Indy’s 4th largest county (Hamilton) than there is on the south side.

  3. Don’t waste your time here. They tend to stock anything that is cheap. Who cares if it a drinkable. Very little care seems to be taken for the selection, and you need to use an app on your iphone to even figure out what is in the bottle might be drinkable. Try a locallly owned store like Grapevine Cottage if you are serious about wine.

  4. I pray for all the alcoholics and addicts out there. My heart goes out to them as isolation is the worse thing for addicts. So another liquor store grieves me. I know, they only care about profits and this article isn’t really about them.

    1. Perhaps they could take care of themselves and let the rest of us make our own decisions?

  5. So stoked about the opening. I’ve been to the one Las Vegas and it’s glorious. This store is for the serious liquor gurus. If you only want to buy Fireball or Budweiser, stick with the local outlet stores.

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