James Yaple Jr.
June Yaple was a pioneer, a woman and mother who gave up her career to fulfill her husband’s dream.
In October 1948, June left behind managing her own beautician’s shop so that James Yaple Sr. could open a beer distributorship—today, Westy’s Beer Distributor on St. Johns Church Road in Hampden Township.
James had worked in the beer business since 1933, driving for an east shore distributor after graduating from William Penn High School.
He wanted to open his own distributor on the west shore, a market that Yaple saw as underserved. But in the heavily regulated alcohol business in Pennsylvania, he couldn’t work for one distributor and open his own.
The license application to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board would have to be in June’s name.
Just a few months before, President Harry S. Truman had signed an order mandating the end of bias against African Americans in the military and in federal jobs. But a woman entering the beer business? That was practically unheard of.
Yet that’s what June did. She and James closed the beauty shop to dedicate themselves to their new venture. A few years later, James quit the other distributorship, launching a partnership with June lasting 41 years.
At first, they named their business West Shore Home Distributor, run out of a garage. However, there was another distributor in New Cumberland called West Shore Beverage.
Customers would call and get them mixed up. So, the guy who lettered James Sr.’s beer truck came up with a grinning cowboy wearing a 10-gallon hat and holding a rope as a logo. Thus was born Westy’s Beer Distributor.
A Legacy
The Yaples had one child, James Yaple Jr., who was 7 when his parents opened Westy’s. He grew up in the family business.
“[Dad] would come home from work, I would come home from school, and I would load the truck for him to go out on delivery after 6 o’clock at night,” said James Jr., now 82. “He’d be done by 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night, and I’d come home from school the next day, and I’d load the truck for him to go out and deliver again.”
James Jr. had other jobs after graduating from Cumberland Valley High School in 1960, including serving in the Air Force and in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard from 1963 to 1969. He became a Westy’s partner in 1978.
James Yaple Sr. died in 1991, but June kept coming in every day, as she had since 1948.
“I drove trucks. I unloaded trucks. I took care of the office. I took care of practically everything,” June told a reporter in 1988.
“She worked here every day until she was 101,” said James Jr., who has been running Westy’s as president since 1984.
When June could no longer drive, her son picked her up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. every day to take her to work.
As the company marks 75 years in October, James Jr. continues a legacy of generations of family customers coming to Westy’s for their beer. Many have fond memories of June, including Nancy Lay, a Westy’s customer since the early 1990s.
“She was the sweetest lady in the world,” said Lay, who recalls trading recipes with June.
June died in 2021 at age 103, but Lay still drives in from Susquehanna Township to get her beer at Westy’s. The large selection and the staff’s product knowledge keep her coming back, she said.
Ups & Downs
Harry Fetrow has been shopping at Westy’s since the 1960s, when the distributor was still in Shiremanstown.
In December 1967, James Jr. moved Westy’s into its present, 7,200-square-foot location on St. Johns Church Road. Yaple has added two warehouses, bringing the total to just over 15,000 square feet.
Fetrow knows what it’s like to run a small local business. He owned a hardware store in Shiremanstown.
“Family-run businesses are dropping like flies,” he said. “With Jim’s competition and with beer being sold everywhere, it’s a great achievement for him to still be in business and still prospering.”
The beer business in Pennsylvania has undergone dramatic changes in recent years due to new laws and regulations opening up the alcohol market.
Among the biggest was Act 39 approved in 2016, allowing beer sales at grocery and convenience stores.
The law limits how much beer grocery and convenience stores can sell in a single sale. But distributors like Westy’s can sell anything from a single through 100 cases, Yaple said.
If you buy beer at a grocery or convenience store, chances are you’re still supporting Westy’s. The company supplies beer to grocery and convenience stores and other licensees like hotels and restaurants from Maryland through State College and from Fulton County through Lebanon and Lancaster.
Westy’s has grown from about 55 beer brands in 1948 to nearly 1,200 now, buoyed by the explosion in craft beer and microbreweries.
Yaple will stay on as long as his health holds up. When it’s time to turn Westy’s over, he’s confident the business will thrive.
“We’ve been in business 75 years,” he said. “We’ve seen the ups and downs. You might stay down two or three years, but the ups always come back.”
Westy’s Beer Distributor is located at 420 St. Johns Church Rd., Camp Hill (Hampden Township). For more information, visit their Facebook and Instagram pages.
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