Old Ones and Cold Ones
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — Old Ones and Cold Ones is a liquor store in Valley that aims to greet customers with a smile and a French bulldog named Smalls.
“Old Ones and Cold Ones is a liquor store in Valley and it is very unique,” said co-owner Anne Cooley. “We have murals that my daughter, Morgan Beaird, painted. Inside we wanted to have it to be very kind of cozy and welcoming. We have chandeliers in a liquor store, which is always funny to say. We did not want to have fluorescent lights, we wanted it to be very unique.”
Cooley said she takes pride in the atmosphere she and her husband, Joseph Cooley, created with their design choices, and customers love it.
“It has a speakeasy feel, it is very unique,” Anne said. “Many people come in and are like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cute. I love this store.’ We say, ‘Thank you,’ because we take a lot of pride in it.”
Along with providing an inviting atmosphere for customers, Cooley said opening Old Ones and Cold Ones was also a response to a need for a liquor store in Valley.
“We wanted to bring the liquor store to Valley, because there were no liquor stores in Valley,” she said. “They were all in Georgia. So rather than people having to drive all the way to Georgia, they can just go locally and be able to buy their alcohol. We do have top shelf alcohol. It's kind of more of a neighborhood liquor store that has top shelf spirits, we have the beer and pretty much anything you would normally see. We even have a designated wine room, which has nothing but wine.”
Since opening last December, Anne said the community response has been positive and that she enjoys cultivating relationships with customers.
“We have a lot of repeat customers, and we're constantly having new customers come in and say, ‘This is the first time I've been here or realized this is here,’” she said. “To which I always respond, ‘The first of many visits, right?’ We really enjoy our customers a lot. The best part is just being able to talk to the local people and get to know people. We really have great customers.”
Along with a smile and a greeting from Old Ones and Cold Ones owners and employees, Anne said customers can also meet Smalls, the owners’ French bulldog, who frequently visits the shop.
“Smalls, our French bulldog, goes to work with us,” she said. “If Joseph is there, Smalls is there. When Smalls isn’t in the store, pretty much everybody comes in and asks where he is. Everybody loves Smalls.”
Anne said she hopes customers feel welcome when they shop at Old Ones and Cold Ones.
“We are definitely not a chain or a big box, and we don't want to be,” she said. “We want to give that personal customer service, when people come in, we always speak to them. We always thank them when they come in. We're always asking, ‘Hey, is there something special you're looking for?’ We have that one-on-one experience that you're not going to get at a big box store, and we are locally and American-owned.”
For more information, visit Old Ones and Cold Ones on Facebook.
