UNITED STATES-ANOTHER BUTCHER CLOSES SHOP.
Disappointed customers didn’t have to pause long in front of Anniston Quality Meats market in Saks to read the story: No more retail trade will take place there.
"Closed for good," the sign read Monday afternoon. "Thanks to all of you! We love y’all. Anniston Quality Meats."
None of the coolers visible through the door contained any meat. A display of condiments and bags of Aunt Mae’s Peanuts remained.
The closure applies to the wholesale and two retail markets of the 40-year-old business, according to Saks store manager Brenda Curvin.
Gene Tomlin, owner of the business during the last few years, could not be reached Monday for comment.
Curvin, who supervised three employees, said Monday evening the economy explains the closure. The flow of customers, while steady, was not heavy enough to meet business expenses.
"All I can tell you is I’ve been there 10 years, and with the economy ..."
She also said business started to decrease around the time Fort McClellan closed. The Saks market opened in the mid-1990s.
But Curvin acknowledged the business, having served both households and institutions for decades, maintained a loyal customer base who preferred not to buy their meat at a supermarket.
The frozen biscuits were also popular.
"You grow to love all the people," Curvin said. "We’re gonna miss ’em."
Customer Cindy Prater of Saks drove up to the Saks store Monday and was surprised; she said she had been in the store last week and no one said anything about going out of business.
An older couple who asked to not be identified said employees would always say "see ya next time -- that’s what they tell us every time we’re in there," according to the man.
The closure of the business represents another limitation on where local shoppers can buy dinner-table food. The 16th and Quintard location of FoodMax shut its doors in April 2007, the Lenlock Food World closed in June 2006 and the closure of Oxford’s FoodMax was announced last month, effective in May unless a buyer can be found.
David Young, to whom Tomlin has been paying rent for the Saks location, said Tomlin told him last Monday in a brief conversation that it was his (Tomlin’s) intention to close "quietly and quickly."
Young said Tomlin was a good tenant in the space, which he still legally occupies by virtue of his most recent rent payment.
"I told him I hated to see him go," Young said.
To clear out the stock an unannounced sale was held there beginning Friday morning, Young said, and by Saturday afternoon, the sale ended, virtually all food merchandise bought.
"When he put it half-price, it moved," Young said.
Young’s own dry cleaning business in the same strip mall benefited from customers Tomlin brought in.
"This place was always busy," Young said, referring to the market. "This was a good location."
Anniston Quality Meat’s other retail market -- adjoining the wholesale operation on Clydesdale Avenue in west Anniston -- opened in 1989. It was similarly dark and empty of meat Monday afternoon around 4.
Although a formal "goodbye" sign wasn’t posted, another sign did state that no personal checks were being accepted after April 6.
Bill Edwards edits the daily TV pages, Coffee Break, Today In History for The Anniston Star.
