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RANDLEMAN -- It's a ritual as old as time, or at least as old as Asheboro's long-standing ban on alcohol sales, which, for most beer drinkers involved, might as well be as old as time.

The Friday night Randleman run.

There are two basic ways to do it. You can go to one of the big, new grocery stores that have popped up in recent decades -- or you can do it old school.

And if you do it old school, you might well end up at Jim's Package Store.

Drinkers across Randolph County know the place. It's the one on South Main Street where you pull under the awning, give your horn a tap and someone comes out with the beer. Drive-thru, baby.

The first thing to know about Jim's Package Store is that Jim doesn't own it, Gary does.

But when you buy an institution, you keep the name.

And for many discriminating Randolph beer drinkers, there is no substitute.

"It's a whole lot colder. It's a whole lot better. It's way better to go here. Drive-thru and everything," says Phillip Russell of Randleman, looking out the passenger side of the car as he waits for his beer.

Russell continues to wax enthusiastic about the store as he waits for Jill Hinesley to bring out a sixer of Sparks, an energy beer.

"It's better than the Circle Inn or Walmart. Any of them. That's the way I see it. And she knows me," he says, nodding at Hinesley.

That's part of the appeal, both for customers and the owners. You get to know people's names. What they drink. Probably even the sound of their car.

"There's very few faces that come in here that I don't recognize," says Gary Hinesley, who bought the store a few years ago.

Usually, only one person works the store. But Friday nights take two.

When things get busy, the Hinesleys walk back and forth across the peeling blue concrete floor, hauling cases of beer past two car hoods hanging on the wall -- one Bud, one Miller Lite -- and a 2008 NASCAR race schedule taped to the counter.

When things get slow, you can hear the buzz of the drink coolers filled with Cokes and MD 20/20.

Despite the fact that you can drive through, some customers walk in, setting down their 40-ounce bottles next to the jars of pickled eggs while they dig out their wallets.

But the beer run's reign could be fading. Asheboro voters recently decided to allow alcohol sales again. That takes out not only the city, but the southern half of the county.

For many drinkers, unless they live in Randleman or are just enjoying a Friday evening cruise, the beer run might be history.

"It's a dying thing. It's going to be terrible," Gary Hinesley says.

Even now, things aren't what they used to be, back before the big grocery stores came in and the town stretched its limits south toward Asheboro.

"At one time, the city limits were at the chain-link fence right there," he says, pointing just outside the store as the Friday evening traffic rolls past. "So this was a happening place."

Gary Hinesley, who already works another full-time job, has a plan ready in case business really drops off.

"Close," he says.

But at least for now, business is hanging in there. Particularly on Friday night.

Sometimes, it gets so busy, the cars are backed up all the way to Main Street.

As the night goes on, business ebbs and flows, gradually picking up the later it gets.

The Hinesleys take turns walking back and forth out to the curb, heading in with money, heading out with beer and change.

By the time midnight rolls around, the cars start to pile up. One. Two. Three. And the tailights glow red as they head back south.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or jason.hardin@news-record.com