Fine spirits, wine and even some beers get better with age. But the passage of time and all that it brought has taken too much of a negative toll on the Liquor Collection.

The store at Ward Warehouse plans to close Dec. 31 after almost 40 years in business.

George O’Hanlon, general manager of the retail shop and companion to its owner Ming Koshi, said a personal health issue and an outdated business model primarily drove the couple, both 62, to decide they needed to retire and close the store.

“It was always a great place to be,” O’Hanlon said, lamenting the end of a mom-and-pop shop where the couple’s children spent many days playing or doing schoolwork in a loft space above the retail floor.

O’Hanlon said Koshi had a stroke about a year ago and needs to avoid stress as part of recovering. “Her health is just a huge factor,” he said Monday.

Another big factor was how the specialty liquor business changed over the past three decades. “We were a place to get the unusual,” he said. “Now the unusual is showing up everywhere. You can go into a gas station convenience store and find craft beer.”

Distribution and retailing of hard-to-find or specialty wines, spirits and beer has exploded in recent years in Hawaii, making competition heavier. Meanwhile, costs to do business kept going up while Liquor Collection maintained some old-fashioned operating systems, such as paper bookkeeping.

“The business model itself is just too antiquated,” O’Hanlon said. “We didn’t evolve fast enough.”

The Liquor Collection also is in a shopping complex slated to be demolished and replaced by two luxury high-rise condominium towers dubbed Gateway as part of a plan by landowner Howard Hughes Corp., though a firm date for redevelopment of Ward Warehouse has not been set.

Koshi’s stepfather and mother, Mike and Josephine Vourlas, started the business as Mike’s Wines in the 900-square-foot space in 1978, three years after Ward Warehouse opened. In 1983, Koshi bought the store and renamed it the Liquor Collection.

As part of broadening the appeal of the shop, Koshi featured what was then a wide variety of international beers — about 20 labels. Now a more typical selection is more than 250. Especially rare items in the store include a $329 bottle of Redbreast Irish whisky and roughly $100 bottles of Signatory Scotch.

Waikiki resident Dusan Vrugic popped into the store Monday to buy a couple of items including a bottle of Amaro Montenegro, and said he was surprised and disappointed to learn about the store’s approaching end. “This place has some really, really good stuff that I can’t find elsewhere,” he said.

As part of preparing to close, all merchandise in the store is 30 percent off.

After the store closes, O’Hanlon and Koshi plan to move to South Dakota to live a more stress-free life with O’Hanlon’s daughter and son-in-law.