01/11/2025
Thank you all for all the cards, comments, and messages. We are trying to read and respond to many of you but it will take some time for us to catch up. Thank you for your patience in the store the last few days. We are sorry we couldn’t chat with each of you personally as you shopped in the store. We have received many questions and in person, through email and Facebook. We thought it would help to answer some of them here.
Why didn’t we make an announcement sooner and why did we have more product in the store?
This process unveiled itself very quickly. We received an offer on the building in Late November with buyer needing to take possession in late winter (February/ March). All aspects of the sale were not firm until last week, and we did not want to make an announcement until we knew that the process and sale was going to be successful.
We faced an impossible task to order more grocery items in November. Our grocery inventory turns around time is 3 to 5 weeks( non holiday), So from the time we order groceries it can be as quick as 3 weeks for us to receive inventory and as along as 5 weeks. Then we need to unload everything and get it into the store. Trying to bring in additional inventory during the busy holiday season was not something that we had additional staff to handle. We also were experiencing shortages on the items that we had been ordering. The supply chain from Europe is still incredibly bumpy.
Our local suppliers are also facing issues. Our cheese supplier missed three deliveries in December- all for various reasons- leaving us with out any raclette, and many of your favorite cheeses. Trust me that our cases were light but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
On the meat side we have faced numerous issues related to the Massachusetts farm animal protection law that took affect just a short time ago. We rely on quality pork from one supplier in Canada that is willing to meet the new regulations in Massachusetts. The supply is not consistent and it has been a challenge to get deliveries on days we plan to make sausages. Sometimes we have to order twice what we need to only receive half of it. Other times deliveries are delay by several days. Over the holidays we experienced several significant delays/ and missed deliveries so we had to change or cut back on what we made. Making sure the more popular items are available. Bob and Anjie often worked extra long days so that the showcase would be full for the morning sales, based on the delivery schedule. As there are only two of them, there was only so much we could make.
Why did we do such a big media blitz if we didn’t have the product to sell?
On Wednesday, January 8th in the am, we posted on Facebook that we were closing. By 11am that morning we had our first TV station in the store, followed quickly by several others. We did not reach out to any media, call any media or have anyone else do that on our behalf. Our story went viral and was so much bigger than we could have anticipated. We are so sorry that we did not have more grocery and meat products in the store for everyone to purchase.
Can we share our recipes so that you can make our items at home?
The good side of this media attention is that we are talking with several interested parties about purchasing the recipes and carrying on with the traditions. This includes our sausages recipes, salads, and baked items. Once we have news on this front we will share it here on Facebook.
We are sorry if we didn’t meet your expectation on how we handled the closing. We truly have been trying to make the best decisions based on the time we have for this transition and the staff resources available to us. Thank you for the many years of shopping at our family run business.
Anita and Bob
