Longtime grocery now closing

A 52-year Marietta grocery store will soon be closing its doors, a victim of the economy and changing times.

Colegate Food Center, 319 Colegate Drive, will go out of business as soon as its inventory is gone, said Glen Antill, who has owned the business with his wife, Patti, since 1988.

"We're not closing because we want to be closing," said Antill, 71. "If we could sell groceries the way we sell meat we would be OK. People only seem to be coming for that."

Antill has been working at the business since 1955 and his wife has been there since 1961.

The site, owned then by John and Francis Semon, was opened as a locker plant in 1946, where residents who didn't have their own freezers could rent a locker and store food. During the '50s and '60s, when the Antills joined the team, there was also a slaughterhouse that would dress poultry, turkeys and beef.

The supermarket opened in 1957. It was known as the Marietta Food Center until the Antills bought it after decades of working there.

"This place has been our life," said Patti Antill. "I'll miss the people-my customers, my people, and I'll miss our employees. We're like a family. If one has a burden, we all have a burden."

Glen Antill said the store still does well preparing and selling fresh meat but in the last two years the grocery side of the business has been suffering.

The economic downturn has likely been a factor as has the growing number of larger, chain grocery stores in the area that can buy products by the truckload and save on costs, said the Antills.

"A little independent guy can't make it that way," said Patti Antill. "And every service station and drug store now thinks they're a grocery store, too. If you're independent you're not going to make it right now."

The couple have sold the land and building, although they decline to say who bought it. There is no public record of the sale yet.

Glen Antill said he expects the building will be torn down and another business will go there, although it won't be a food business, he said.

Getting the unsolicited offer was an answer to the family's prayers, said his wife, who will look for a part-time job because she enjoys going to work everyday.

"When you enjoy your job it's a joy and it has been," she said. "But it's not a joy anymore when it's a burden."

The 24-employee store will continue to be stocked weekly with perishable foods until all the grocery inventory runs out, said Glen Antill, and then the doors will close.

It will be a sad day for many in the neighborhood when that happens, said Mike Martin, 48, shopping at the store Friday.

"I can walk here from home and get a few things," he said. "Everyone is friendly. It's a small store. You can't find that anymore."

That was part of the charm for many of the regular customers there.

"We're from the old school," admits Glen Antill.

One of the Antills' goals from the beginning was to try to be an asset to the community, they said, offering home delivery service from those who couldn't get to the store, postage stamps, trash tickets, money orders and always taking the time to stop, talk and help, when needed.

"I felt the Lord put us here to help people and that's what we've tried to do," said Patti Antill. "This hurts."