AROUND THE PARK AGAIN By Sharon Lee Tegler
By Friday of last week, many Severna Park residents had received a large yellow postcard from Robinson Liquors saying “We need your help to make it happen!! Please sign the petition and allow a license for Robinson Liquors.” Additional messaging and a map on the back of the card noted that the store would be located off Robinson Road in the 22,000 sq. ft. space next to Aldi’s Supermarket.
A map on the yellow card shows Robinson Liquors’s location at Robinson Crossing. 
Robinson Liquors has leased the space next to Aldi Supermarket for the new store.
A visit to Robinson Liquors’ website shows it will essentially be a capacious liquor superstore, offering over 2,800 beers, wines and spirits at competitive prices.
The petition on the store’s website provides a place for one’s name and address, phone and email and a place for a signature above the statement “I, the undersigned, support the application of Robinson Liquors LLC for a new Class A (Beer, Wine & Liquor) package store license at 466 Ritchie Highway, Severna Park, Maryland 21146. I believe that the area is not adequately served by existing stores and would welcome the convenience and the choice to shop at a new store.”
Severna Park liquor stores are not in agreement that the area is not adequately served and plan to oppose the issuing of a liquor license at an Anne Arundel County Board of License Commissioners hearing on March 8 at 6 pm at the County Council Chambers in Annapolis.
Andrey Nikolaev, owner of Robinson’s Liquors, LLC (along with Annapolis resident Ronald Breeden who has a one percent interest in the business) has previous experience as a liquor store operator in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Until recently, he was president and CEO of Drinx Market, a store with a format similar to what is proposed for Robinson Liquors.
When we spoke with Nikolaev, he affirmed that he is a small business owner currently living in the Cabin John community of Montgomery County, Maryland with his wife and son but is shortly moving to Annapolis.
In describing Robinson Liquors, he emphasized that it is not a corporation or large operation but a small business.
“Basically, I’m a small business owner who has invested his own savings although most of the financing is coming from a loan obtained from the Small Business Administration,” Nikolaev said.
The Maryland Small Business Administration was unable to provide confirmation of the loan by publication time.
He added that he’d been looking at Severna Park as a location in Anne Arundel County for over a year and doing extensive market research to make sure there is more demand for alcoholic beverages than there is supply.
“I found 24 liquor stores that sell alcohol off premises within a 5-mile radius of Severna Park,” he said. “In the same area, the expenditure for alcoholic beverages for last year was $29 and-a-half million dollars which was slightly higher than previous years due to the COVID pandemic but it wasn’t significantly different from previous years.”
In contrast, Kim Lawson, owner of Fishpaws MarketPlace, said those 24 liquor stores (seven of them in Severna Park proper) already offer an ample supply of beers, wines and liquors to say nothing of dozens of area bars and restaurants that have off-premises sales capabilities. She believes there is not enough demand to support another liquor store in the Severna Park area and that a liquor superstore would harm business at the community’s existing liquor stores.
“On learning of Robinson Liquors, LLC’s application for a liquor license, all our small businesses that carry spirits in the Severna Park area have come together to oppose the move because the new business is like a superstore,” Lawson said.
“Because of the way the laws are in Maryland, we only found out about this three weeks ago through word of mouth and didn’t receive a notice from the Liquor Board until a week ago,” she added. “From the oldest to the newest and the largest to the smallest, all of us are asking our customers to sign a petition of our own to reject the move.”
Those most immediately in the Severna Park area are Dawson’s Liquors, Harbour Wine & Spirits, Severna Park Wine & Spirits, Goska’s Liquors, Corwell & Son Liquors, Magothy Wine & Spirits and Fishpaws Market Place. All have petitions prominently displayed on their counters.
Though closed four days to have new flooring installed, Fishpaws already had gathered many signatures on their petition according to Lawson.
Straddling the border between Severna Park and Arnold, Fishpaws has been a traditional stopping point for locals and travelers. A tavern and gas station in the 1930’s, the store was owned by the Fishpaw family from the late ’40’s through the 60’s. It changed hands a couple times before being purchased by Kim Lawson and her parents, Brad and Chris, in 1982. In 2004, the Lawsons tackled a major reconstruction becoming a market place that features a deli, gourmet foods, and a selection of beer, wines and spirits. Seventeen years later, they are currently laying a new floor and refreshing the interior.
Fishpaw’s Garage in the 1930’s. 
Fishpaws MarketPlace as it appears today.
Also gathering signatures on its petition is Dawson’s Liquors in Olde Severna Park. We caught up with Jo Ann Polk and Nick Cipriano, two of five partners who own the business today. Cliff Dawson founded the business in 1944 when he leased the Codd Building at 4 Riggs Avenue (now the Red Apron Shoppe) following the death of its owner. Christened Dawson’s Store, it featured a soda fountain, liquor sales and a slot machine. Outgrowing the space, Dawson built the current store on the corner of McKinsey Road and Old Annapolis Boulevard which he opened in 1952. An enlargement to the building in 1967 temporarily housed the Severna Park Post Office. Ten years before his death, Dawson’s family took over the business and still leases the building. In 1985 JoAnn and her late husband Ed Polk opened Dawson’s Liquors along with their partners.
Polk said it’s hard to believe the partners have operated the business for 37 years. During that time, they’ve built great relationships with their customers and local businesses and have contributed to the community in significant ways. They are, in fact, the lynchpin of the area of Olde Severna Park called Dawson’s Corner.
Cipriano and Polk say they know, for a fact, that many people are planning to attend the hearing on March 8 but feel it may be postponed.
“Our group is working with a lawyer who has written to the liquor board requesting some paperwork,” Polk said. “There’s an Anne Arundel County Council law that any business requiring more than 10,000 square feet must give a written report to the Liquor Board. For some reason, the Liquor Board was planning to hold that hearing prior to receiving the report. Our lawyer also asked for some financial information from the proposed licensee.”
Cipriano said droves of people are signing the petition, some of whom are coming in specifically to do so.
Employee Henry Stahl noted that he and others who work the counter were surprised to see customers seek the petition out. One of those was Karen Tomar who is seen below.
Citing her experience with suppliers and the relative buying power of larger and smaller stores, Polk feels particular concern for low volume stores including Goska’s (which is directly across the street from the proposed Robinson Liquors) as well as Magothy Wine & Spirits at Magothy Village and Severna Park Wine & Spirits at 547 Ritchie Highway in the Severna Park Market Place.
Severna Park Wine & Spirits owner Mukesh (Mukie) Kapoor, whose store is the smallest at 2,000 square feet, said he concentrates on carrying a good selection of quality wines and spirits that please his customers. Like other multi-generational business owners, he’s enjoyed building his local customer base in the years since the store was established by his uncle in 2000. Worried about being able to compete pricewise with a megastore, he’s also accumulating signatures on his petition pages.
Nikolaev argues that supplier pricing it isn’t really an issue.
“In Maryland, there are really strict alcohol laws……We share the same distributors,” he said. “They have to provide the same [wholesale] prices to all the liquor stores regardless of their relationships. For example, let’s say I want to order Tito’s Vodka. The prices that they have for case deals are exactly the same prices that Goska’s Liquors or Severna Park Wine & Spirits will pay.”
At Harbour Wine & Spirits at 527 Benfield Road, owners Don and Cathy MacMurray were not on hand, however their staff was enthusiastic in sharing their knowledge about the shop’s 30-year existence.
The store opened in the 1930’s and was owned by the Cancelliere family. The building which Harbour Wine & Spirits’ has occupied for 22 years is still owned by the Cancelliere family.
Concerned that a new mega store might affect their business even though their location is a few miles away, the owners and staff chose to display the petition being held up by Noelle Bailey in the opening photo.
Nikolaev says Robinson Liquors’ mailed out the bright yellow card soliciting support, because, in order to get a license, he needs to show the demand for his product.
“We wanted to reach out to all the residents in this area to see whether they are supporting us or not,” he said. “Before signing the lease a year ago, we had a brand ambassador come to the site to ask the shopping center customers whether they would like it or not. We had nothing but positive feedback.”
Nikolaev believes that aisles 8 feet apart for easy access, plenty of employees to help locate what patrons are looking for, and a wide selection of accessories as well as snacks and sodas will appeal to Robinson Liquors clientele.
Nikolaev acknowledges that his choice of location was influenced by the sheer amount of traffic traveling Ritchie Highway prompting people to stop and shop. Research revealed that there are 56,220 cars passing by every day and he estimates that, if even five percent of them stopped by, that would mean close to 300 customers.
From its beginnings Fishpaw’s location beside Ritchie Highway, has attracted both shore traffic and business traffic headed for the Bay Bridge.
At present, Nikolaev will be focusing primarily on Robinson Liquors having sold his interest in Drinx Market. He adds that he also operates a smaller IT business focused on facilitating credit card processing and technical support.
The would-be Severna Park business owner has also launched a program called “Retailers Against Russia”, establishing a website at www.retailersagainstrussia.org to encourage small businesses to ban carrying Russian projects in their stores. He said the project is personal to him as part of his family are Ukranians whose home was bombed by Russian forces. According to Nikolaev, they managed to escape across the border just yesterday.
There has been speculation in the Severna Park community that Andrey Nikolaev is related to Konstantin Nikolaev, a Ukranian-born Russian billionaire a co-owner of N-Trans and Globaltrans, the largest private rail operator in Russia and the Baltic states. In 2019, Forbes estimated Nikolaev’s net worth at $1.2 billion.
Andrey says this is false.
“I was actually contacted by the Washington Post about this in 2016. Apparently, there is an Andrey Nikolaev whose father is Putin’s backed billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev, who has business on US Soil in Texas. My father’s name is Sergey Nikolaev, not Konstantin Nikolaev. I studied in Boston, MA (Northeastern University), not Washington, DCMy family and I migrated to United States in 2007…”
Whether Robinson Liquors license is approved or not, the company has already made a name for itself in Severna Park and generated many more names on petitions around the community.
Mr. Nikolaev is very misleading in his statement that all stores receive the same wholesale pricing. Because of the size of his store he will naturally have more space to store large quantity purchases. Because he can store more he will get better pricing for purchasing larger quantities. Smaller stores will be unable to compete in this arena. This “mega” store will impact small, established businesses eventually driving them out.