Store's closing ends era seniors worry about losing community


By Trisha Evans
Business Writer


Pat Miller (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Pat+Miller&CATEGORY=PERSON) isn't scared of very much anymore — age has a way of shattering timidity. But she is afraid of losing a community and way of life.

She's not alone. Other seniors who live close and shop at Mayfair Market say they will be lost when the more than 50-year-old grocery closes next month.

"There are people who are just devastated,” Miller said. "It's like losing an arm.”


Many seniors now walk to the store and others don't feel safe driving on major streets to get to other stores, she said.

Store co-owner Jeff Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON) doesn't know who will serve the elderly residents who come to the market for carry-out service, small size and post office. The store also delivers groceries to several who are shut in, he said.


But the decision is out of his hands. The land was leased to CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY). The building will be torn down and a pharmacy will be built.

A California investor bought the family-owned Mayfair Village shopping center in April. Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON) said he offered to pay double in rent, more than $10,000 a month, in order to keep the store. But his offer wasn't sweet enough.


"We could have offered to triple our lease, but CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) would have still outbid us,” Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON) said. "I'm sad. I hate it that we have to leave.”
Drugstore wars?


Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON) and nearby residents both say the grocery store was caught in a competitive war between CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) and the Walgreens (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Walgreen+Company&CATEGORY=COMPANY) across the street.


CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) officials say similar demographics drew them to the area, not their competitor. The company denies they are responsible for the grocery store going out of business.

"The property became available and we took the opportunity,” CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) spokesman Mike DeAngelis (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Mike+DeAngelis&CATEGORY=PERSON) said. "Economically, it's very hard for grocery stores to survive in that small a footprint.”


Nonetheless, the issue is an emotional one.

"There have been tears shed on the floor. Some of these people have worked here for 30 years,” Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON) said. "I've got customers in their 80s and they've been shopping here their whole lives.”


For 93-year-old Juanita Schwarberg (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Juanita+Schwarberg&CATEGORY=PERSON) the store is one-stop-shop. She banks at Union Bank (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Union+Bank&CATEGORY=COMPANY) next door and picks up stamps at the post office.

Since she doesn't drive on highways anymore, her options are limited to the SuperTarget (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Target+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) nearby, which doesn't have a full line of groceries and is too big, she said.

"I'm just burned up about this,” she said. "We're losing all of our good grocery stores.”


Longtime employees like Earla Miles (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Earla+Miles&CATEGORY=PERSON) are also disappointed, but many will commute to Del City or Choctaw to work in Williams (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Jeff+Williams&CATEGORY=PERSON)' other stores.
"I feel bad for the customers,” Miles (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Earla+Miles&CATEGORY=PERSON) said. "I know a lot of the customers. It's just hard to see it go.”


Local residents recently organized two community meetings at Central Presbyterian Church to protest the decision and voice concerns with city officials and a CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) representative.


"There's nothing CVS (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=CVS+Corporation&CATEGORY=COMPANY) could have given us except a grocery store,” Miller (http://www.newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Pat+Miller&CATEGORY=PERSON) said.


She said residents want fresh meat and produce and to see familiar faces and neighbors in the aisles. A grocery store has a way of tying a community together, a community she said is already starting to unravel.

"If we have to go elsewhere to get groceries, we'll probably go elsewhere for everything else,” she said. "It's destroyed the family neighborhood. We're lost no matter what.”

That really sucks! I grew up in that neighborhood and liked that grocery store. It still did fairly well. Oh well, they can't blame this one on Wal-Mart!

You can't really blame CVS as much, it seems to me, than the unnamed "California investor" who bought Mayfair Village and leased the land to CVS instead of to the grocery store as the local owners had done for years. He could have easily accepted the Mayfair Market rent offers and the neighborhood would have kept the grocery store. I agree, greedy is the word. I remember that store when it was Stone's IGA.

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Mayfair Market was one of my magazine accounts. They have a good staff of people who will be placed in other locations if they want at other Williams locations.

Yes. It is too bad. Especially when it is one of the rare employers who actually care.