The last locally owned grocer in Bryan/College Station is downsizing and moving.
First reported by KBTX, Village Foods owner Jim Lewis accepted an offer from Aldi’s to occupy some the space at Briarcrest and 29th.
After telling employees, Lewis explained the decision in response to a post on the TexAgs message board.
I’m not sure what I’ve done to Aggie barstool but, when your options become (a) cut your staff down to 50 full time equivalents by Sunday (the start of your new fiscal year) – but you have to tell them 2 days before Christmas that Saturday will be their last day or (b) wait 5 days until Monday so you can get past Christmas to tell them the their jobs are going away by February 6th – but option b will cost you $40,000 in Affordable Health Care fines, what would YOU do?
The last thing I wanted to do was ruin anyone’s Christmas, but those were my choices. It is clear who I am. If you want to come out from behind your anonymous handle and reveal who you are, I’d be happy to discuss this with you in the wide open for all to see.
What business did you run for more than 7-1/2 years, keeping as many as 85 people employed at one time – while never taking a paycheck for yourself? And if you think I got paid on the real estate end, then you don’t know that I cut the rent Village Food paid down to almost 1/3 of what AppleTree’s lease called for in order to allow Village Foods to continue to operate – and all our employees to be paid.
At some point, no matter how much you love the employees and customers, you have to deal with the reality that you can only carry for so long. It doesn’t make you a villain. There doesn’t have to be a villain. The Aldi opportunity came to me. They are not giving me anything for the business. I have to liquidate everything and get out of their way so they can built their store inside my building – and then I have to find another tenant or two to take up the other 33,000 sq ft. So I didn’t get a big check and then fire every like some scrooge.
As for the future of Village Foods, we will move to a smaller location and focus on what we do well; our (award-winning) pharmacy, gluten free foods, natural health & beauty, and natural foods. Hopefully we will make a meaningful impact in those areas and those customers will continue to allow us to serve them – and I can continue to provide those jobs.
