Eastgate Liquor’s North Reading

People who work there rarely say hello and make eye contact. Store is confusing and hard to find things. Many wine bottles don’t even have prices marked on them so you don’t even know how much things cost until you get to the register.

Excellent. Nice people and good prices. Pretty good selection, clean, good parking. This is the best choice in the area.

I have frequently supported this store but I feel they have misleading if not deceptive marketing practices. They post the wine spectator points for certain wines. I realized today that none of the bins that have these signs have the correct year that corresponds to the wine spectator rating. Ratings can vary quite a bit from year to year.
They are hoping that the consumer is in a rush and does not notice I am sure. Some of the little signs have the year on the back so you would not readily see it. I don’t care if any one else does it, it is wrong. There was no disclaimer that I saw. And it was pretty obvious to me when I asked the sales clerk about it that he struggled for an answer. Very disappointing to me.

First of all, I was always a frequent shopper at Eastgate, North Reading. Overall I like the place — they have good selections across the board, but lately, their bottle/​can return policies are getting pretty absurd. For a few years now, they have had this policy of «if they don’t sell it, you can’t return it to them». OK fine — it is a little inconvenient but I understand — business is business.
But I just recently returned a few cases of beer and soda cans. For the soda, I like to put the cans back in the 12 pack sleeves to make it easy to carry and count. This time the guy says to me that he «Can’t accept them if I mixed the Coke and Pepsi products together in the same sleeve». What? Are you JOKING? But NO he was serious.
He then explains to me further that Schweppes is a Pepsi product and Canada dry is a Coke product so I have to keep those separate too.
Are you kidding me? I had about 4 cases (8 sleeves” of these) and he wanted me to go through them and separate the products??? RIDICULOUS! Enough is enough.
I used to ALWAYS take my «bottle receipt» (which was about $ 10 from the beer) and put it toward another purchase — BUT NOT THIS TIME! This time I took the «cash» at checkout (I felt silly holding an armful of my «unacceptable mixed sleeves»).
I then headed up to New England Beverage (Didn’t have any problems there). I took the beer cash and soda cash and bought a nice bottle of Shiraz and some beer.
If you are reading this, Eastgate — loosen up a bit. Remember, most people will spend their «empties/​return» money at the same place. From now on, I’ll bring my empties up to NE Beverage in North Reading and spend my bottle cash up there. I don’t need the «hassle» of your foolish return policies. Business is business, but convenience is convenience and for a few nickels, you lost dollar$ in follow-​up sales!

They have beer, spirits, and wine. What else do you need?
I wish they would do those old shopping spree gameshows there. I would go berzerk.

I live in Reading which is just a short drive from Eastgate Liquors. This store has the larger «Kappys» feel to it and is a much shorter drive for me than that option. They always have several staff working and you will never wait in line. Eastgate have a very large variety of all things booze. The store could use a facelift as it is very dated, but the reality is this is a liquor store and not fine dining. Plus, PBR in the bottle, so I am sold.

Great prices. Wilmington one seems a little cleaner, but staff nice at both.

This is the only liquor store that I know if in this area. (Except for the little peach store that you can get beers at later at night…) I stop by here on a fairly regular basis. I was a little taken aback the first time I stopped in, the lady who rang us up was a little brisk, and I felt like maybe I had done something offensive by standing in line, or quietly picking out what beers I wanted. But, no, that couldn’t have been it! I think she maybe woke up on the wrong side that day, or something. Just a snippet of our conversation was: instead of a «hey… happy birthday soon!» I got a «well! you know your ID is about to expire, right?!» It was weird. Very weird.
Since that first interaction things have gone a lot smoother down at Eastgate. I go in, pick out my beers or wines, depending on what is for dinner, and then grab a pack or butts or something and it’s usually the same lady behind the counter, who seems to be familiar with me now (though it’s hard to tell…) and is not as odd as the first time I went in there.
They have a decent selection of beers, wines, mixers and LQ, and all the types of cigarettes that my friends smoke (which is quite the mix) so we do alright when we stop here. It’s set up is fairly good — I like the feng shui, it works for me. I have been able to find all the things I need to, in a timely fashion.
Now if somebody would just tell me what the white mailbox outside with the strange seal that said «north reading power and light» or something on the side is, I’d be good to go!

Eastgate Liquors has a wide variety of wines at discounted prices. Head to the left side of the store and you’ll come upon a wall full of freezers carrying a wide selection of beers and ales, including a great selection of micro brews from Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues, Left Hand Brewing, Ommegang, Wachusett, Stone, and more.
Their staff is knowledgeable and friendly… and their prices are significantly lower than New England Beverage & Redemption (about a mile up the road).

Not sure why the prior reviewer wrote her review for another location bitching about the N. Reading location, but I like this place.
I find myself driving by Eastgate every night on my way home from work so when in need, I make the stop.
I found this to be quite a large store with plenty of parking. Easy to get to on Rt 28, and its corner location allows for easy in and out. Great selection, and most importantly very good prices.
I’ve never found the need to ask for help here, so I can not comment on the customer service. I will say I do not recall ever seeing a smile on the cashiers face, but then again I don’t go in there looking for a smile. I go looking for something that might put a smile on my face later.