Downtown Onaway grocery store closing, as community prepares for summer event
Carter?s Food Center, a longtime grocery store in Onaway, will close in the coming days as stock dwindles and shelves empty.
The store, on State Street, will close its doors after more than 20 years in business in the community. The exact closing date depends on how quickly the inventory sells.
Company officials told local employees Tuesday to not accept any more deliveries. A large grocery delivery was turned away Monday, which would have prepared the store for the Fourth of July celebration, a traditional money maker for the store.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there was still a steady stream of customers filling their shopping carts as if it was a typical business day. Many customers were learning of the store closing for the first time from cashiers as they checked out.
?The customers are shocked and don?t want us to go, of course,? said customer service manager Laurie Crull, who is one of five employees to work for the store for 20 years ?It?s a small town, your customers become family.?
A CONFERENCE CALL from the corporate office was received Monday by the store manager.
The next morning, a handful of employees were called to the service desk and told of the company?s decision.
It will put 18 employees out of work. They include department managers, cashiers, carry-out workers, as well as a scanning coordinator. Crull said they had been working with a ?skeleton crew? for months. Three years ago, the company employed more than 40 people.
The bread and milk supply had shrunk Wednesday to the point that the next loaf removed would leave a hole that could not be refilled.
The vitality of the Onaway business has waned in recent years, and after the closing of larger Carter?s stores in Petoskey, Cadillac, and Cheboygan, many employees and customers believed that the Onaway franchise was on thin ice, but had hoped the company would pull out of its financial freefall.
?We were very hopeful that things would work out for us, but I guess it just wasn?t meant to be,? said Crull.
?It is shocking, yes,? said cashier Brian Schoolcraft, who has worked for Carter?s for six years. ?There is nothing I could do about it. I was sort of was expecting it, but maybe not for years down the line. It has been sad.?
THE BIGGEST SURPRISE was the timing. Nobody expected the store to shift into shutdown mode during a time when the most people visit Onaway.
?It?s when the store makes the most money,? said assistant manager Gary Hammons.
The store manager reportedly walked over to Tom?s IGA Tuesday to tell owner Tom Madison that he should expect a spike in business.
Hammons was not given a specific date for the store to close, but he was not sure if they will be able to get through the weekend.
?Right now, we are trying to sell as much of our product as we can to help pay our bills,? said Hammons. ?Our goal is to sell three-quarters of our inventory.?
The store had a good day financially Tuesday, said Crull. On Wednesday, two checkout lines had more than four people in line around 3 p.m., so business had not slowed even in the wake of the news.
IT WAS about 20 years ago when Carter?s arrived in Onaway to take over ownership of the former Country Star Market. Before that the grocery store was
?It is going to be a loss,? said Forrest Porter, sitting alone at a table in the frozen food department. ?I suppose something else will come in here.? Some employees were telling customers that there may be other grocery franchises interested in the location.?
Hammons said, ?Some of them are actually blaming Wal-Mart. You really can?t blame Wal-Mart. It is just the way the times are.?
Hammons, who lives in Tower, is concerned because he just bought another home in Atlanta.
For Crull it?s a loss of ?health insurance,? she paused. ?Twenty years of my life,? she paused again, searching for her next thought, while fighting tears. ?The people ? it?s pretty devastating.?