JOE DEJKA
WorldHerald Staff Writer
After 50 years in business, Spirit World is giving up the ghost.
The store in Omaha's Aksarben Village, which sells liquor, beer and wine, is closing.
Over the years, the store amassed a loyal following that appreciated its selection, knowledgeable staff and efforts to educate customers.
Laurie Hellbusch, who has owned the store the last 17 years, said it will close in January.
She declined to say specifically why the store is closing now, only that "it's the right time."
But, speaking more broadly, she said the retail market for alcohol is being affected by consumers' changing habits and a surge of new stores opening the past few years.
Spirit World was founded in 1974 by Harlan Noddle, Murray Newman and Denny Lewis.
Hellbusch, 48, was working as a lawyer in Omaha when she bought the business from Lewis. At the time, the store was on 75th and Pacific Streets.
She had a business management degree from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. But she considered herself a "hobbyist" when it came to spirits.
The store has evolved over its half-century, starting out as a warehouse store.
"That was Denny's model, and then he was kind of the first person to bring in varietal wine to the Nebraska market, meaning like chardonnay and cabernet," as opposed to cheaper wine blends, she said.
He turned it into a specialty store, and when it came up for sale, that appealed to her.
"That's what I grabbed hold of and tried to push forward with, being a place that you can get really good knowledge," Hellbusch said.
The staff was knowledgeable and could converse with customers and provide good service, she said.
"Having somebody that you can come in and ask 'I've tried this bottle at a restaurant, I really loved it, what can you recommend?'"
Spirit World became known for its selection, the go-to place for customers searching for something unique, she said.
Her shelves were always stocked with some recognizable wines but also some obscure labels.
"We always want to have things that people haven't tried and be able to teach somebody something new," she said.
Nationally, wine sales have been shrinking, she said. According to the Wine Institute, U.S. consumption peaked in 2021 at 1.06 billion gallons but slid to 899 million gallons in 2023.
Younger consumers don't drink wine as much, she said.
"It's not a category that younger consumers seem to be interested in learning about," she said. "So, as wine buyers age, they're drinking less and less, and there aren't new consumers that are filling that pipeline."
Whiskey sales ballooned over the last decade, especially American whiskey, but retailers are starting to see that bubble burst, she said.
Some consumers are switching from hard alcohol to seltzers, and she's seen a big increase in nonalcoholic beverages and beverages infused with cannabis. Some older customers are aging out of their drinking years, she said.
"It's a combination of factors that overall alcohol consumption is decreasing," she said.
Despite the consumption trends, Nebraska has seen big retailers enter the market over the past few years, she said.
Among them have been Macadoodles, Wine, Beer and Spirits and Wall to Wall Wine and Spirits. The latest big retailer, Total Wine and More, opened last month in Omaha, about a mile from Spirit World. It claims to stock more than 8,000 different wines.
"There's so many new stores opening, and there aren't magically more customers in the market," she said. "There's not really enough space for everybody."
The pandemic provided a temporary boost to retail alcohol sales, she said.
Purchases of alcoholic beverages soared to a state record in Nebraska in 2020. With bars and restaurants shut down or open with limited capacity, drinkers turned to mixing their own cocktails or popping their bottles of wine or beer at home.
That spurred retail growth, only to ebb after the pandemic, she said.
In recent years, retailers in Nebraska have also experienced some difficulty getting product, she said. Some wholesalers can't get all the product in to supply stores with the amount that they want, she said.
"It's now at a point that there are too many retailers, and that will have to weed itself out over time," Hellbusch said. "How that plays out, I don't know. Which ones stick around and which ones don't make it, I don't know."
Hellbusch said she treasures her decision to leave a law career and "write my own story" owning and operating Spirit World and doing it her way.
She said she'll miss the staff, whom she affectionately calls "passionate misfits." The staff had to be "nerdy" to work there, and they feel like family, she said.
Since announcing the closing, she's been receiving thanks and well-wishes. Those are flattering, she said, because "it means we did something right along the way. I think it means we meant something to people along the way."
She said, however, that Spirit World is "bigger than me." Hellbusch said she was lucky enough to manage it for 17 years.
She initially wasn't a fan of the store's name -- actually hated it -- and she contemplated changing it. Through the years people would call and ask if the store sold Halloween costumes or crystals. Her business sense told her to keep it.
"And I was like, 'That's dumb. You bought a successful business. You don't change the name of a successful business'."
Hellbusch said she's aiming to close in mid-January, the date depending on clearing out inventory.
"We're not ordering anything in at this point," she said.
She doesn't have a definite plan for the future, but it will include rest, travel and spending more time with her daughters, 11 and 14.
"I want to go to all of their show choir competitions and dance competitions, and kind of be a show-choir and dance mom for six months, and then see from there," Hellbusch said.
joe.dejka@owh.com, 402-444-1077