A sprawling new liquor superstore is set to open on Mall Road in Florence, stocking more than 8,000 wines, 4,500 spirits and 2,500 beers under one roof. Total Wine & More will celebrate its grand opening on September 24, bringing a walk-in humidor, an in-store classroom and THC-infused beverages to a retail corridor already reshaping itself around national chains.
The new 15,000-square-foot store sits at 7646 Mall Road in Florence Square Shopping Center, a space that redevelops a commercial unit formerly occupied by Party City, which closed in March 2025, according to LINK nky. As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, the store is expected to create 25 jobs and will feature wine and spirits tasting stations alongside a humidor carrying more than 50 premium cigar brands.
Shirin Odar, Total Wine & More's chief stores officer, said the company is excited to welcome the Florence community, per the same report from the Cincinnati Enquirer. The company describes itself as the nation's largest independent retailer of wine, spirits and beer, founded in 1991 and now operating more than 290 stores across the United States, the outlet notes. The Florence location will mark Total Wine's fifth store in Kentucky, joining two existing locations in Louisville — at Paddock Shops and St. Matthews — and two in Lexington, at Lexington Green and Sir Barton Way, according to the retailer's own store finder.
A Regional Rival Looms in Bellevue
Total Wine's arrival sets up direct competition with The Party Source, the employee-owned Bellevue institution that operates more than 113,000 square feet of retail space and stocks nearly 50,000 products, according to The Party Source. Founded in 1993, the store became 100% employee-owned in 2014 and draws over 500,000 shoppers annually, per the same company page. The arrival of a national chain with deep inventory in wines, spirits and beer creates an unmistakable corporate-versus-independent dynamic in the Tri-State liquor retail scene.
Local shelf space is not easy to come by in Kentucky. The state limits package alcohol sales through a statutory quota system under KRS 243.240 and 804 KAR 9:010, which generally caps quota retail package licenses at one per 2,300 residents per county, according to Adams Law. Lawmakers codified those quotas under Senate Bill 110 in 2018, even after Kentucky eliminated population caps on by-the-drink bar licenses the year before, the firm notes.
THC Drinks Join the Shelves Under New State Rules
Beyond wine and spirits, the new store will offer THC-infused beverages and non-alcoholic options, alongside accessories and gifts, per the Cincinnati Enquirer's reporting. That's only possible because of Kentucky Senate Bill 202, which took effect in June 2025 and restricts sales of hemp-derived THC beverages exclusively to package liquor stores holding quota licenses, capping each container at 5 milligrams of THC, as detailed by the NKyTribune. The law placed THC-infused seltzers under oversight of Kentucky's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, mirroring the state's three-tier alcohol distribution rules, the outlet reports.
The timing lines up with a regulatory squeeze just across the river. Ohio's Senate Bill 56, tightened in March 2026, banned retail THC drinks outside state dispensaries after Governor Mike DeWine vetoed low-dose retail exemptions, prompting several regional beverage brands to pivot their distribution into Northern Kentucky liquor stores, according to LINK nky. Total Wine's move to stock THC beverages in Kentucky follows a broader national pattern; the retailer began stocking hemp-derived THC drinks in select states in 2024 and 2025, including a rollout in Arizona that Hoodline covered in February 2025.
Local Brands Get Shelf Space Alongside Big Names
The Florence store won't be purely a national showcase. It will sell products from Boone County Distilling Co., Rhinegeist Brewery and Stonebrook Winery, giving regional producers a spot on the shelves alongside the store's massive national inventory, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. The in-store classroom is set to host events with winemakers, distillers and brewers, and Total Wine has said it will celebrate the Florence opening with in-store tastings and other events, according to a company press release cited in the Enquirer's report.
Job listings posted ahead of the grand opening offered hourly wages ranging from $14.84 to $20.78 for full-time and part-time sales associate roles, according to a posting reviewed on Indeed. Staffing at the new location includes sales associates, cashiers, receivers and specialized wine and spirits team members, per the same listing.
Part of a Bigger Mall Road Building Boom
Total Wine's opening lands amid a broader commercial development wave along Florence's Mall Road corridor, which also includes a new 55,000-square-foot Publix grocery store and an IKEA Plan and Order Point, according to LINK nky's Q1 2026 economic development coverage. Florence reported more than 2,000 operating businesses and roughly 700 new business applications annually in that same report, backed by a population of 33,129 and a median household income of $69,112, the outlet found. As Boone County's primary economic hub and Northern Kentucky's second-largest city, Florence has become a magnet for national retailers chasing suburban population growth.
