Business & Tech

Needham's Getting a Bin Ends. But What Is It?

Bin Ends one of five stores approved for a liquor license. A little about the Braintree-based store.


There are five liquor stores coming to Needham in the coming months. One of them is the Braintree-based Bin Ends. 

It was the fifth shop approved at the February hearing. Although it was approved in a 3-1 vote, each of the Board of Selectmen praised the store's concept. The Crawford Street address is currently being remodeled for Bin Ends' new home, and their Facebook page has photos of progress at the store.

The store got its start in Braintree about five years ago, and Braintree Patch caught up with the owners there last year. Needham Patch will talk to them about their Needham location next week, but for those who haven't head of the shop before, here is a brief introduction to Bin Ends:

Hafferty said the selling point of the shop is, "Great wines, serious savings. Even the name of the company shows that we run away from the highbrow concept… it’s Bin Ends! The original concept was to fill a niche like a Marshalls of the wine retail world but over the four years since we opened, we have become a lot more."

Brockton-native Hafferty got his start with wine as a sales rep for an importer, and later moved up to a regional rep role. He later spent eight years as a fine wine portfolio manager at MS Walker before heading to Braintree to open Bin Ends. 

Many of the observations he made during his time at those positions influenced how Bin Ends took shape. The store itself is full of racks, crates and boxes. The whole atmosphere feels "approachable to consumers at all levels of experience and knowledge" as Hafferty puts it.

He says the Braintree location draws people from a 20-mile radius--wine drinkers from as far away as Somerville, Cambridge, and the South Shore as far as Duxbury.

"It’s funny, every once in a while you still get the occasional person who believes that wine is somewhat highbrow." Remarked Hafferty "I can tell you, just by looking around the store that our approach and attitude to wine is anything but that!"

See the full April 2012 interview on Braintree Patch.


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