Store ends its shelf life With reliable workers hard to find, an area institution closes
Customers have offered to work for Stanton if he'll keep the store open.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- After 70 years in business, Stanton's Market is closing, not because it lacks customers, but because it lacks employees.
"It got so bad with people calling off or not showing up, I didn't know if I could open up in the morning," said Bill Stanton, who bought the store at 124 Poland Ave. in 1977.
"I don't want to close -- I like this business. I've been in it since I was 12 years old," Stanton lamented. "But I can't find help. I've been working 75 or 80 hours a week, and it's still a mess because I can't do everything."
When Stanton first bought the store, finding reliable employees was no problem. Lots of people wanted to work part time as cashiers or stocking shelves and cleaning. Some workers stayed for decades, quitting only when they reached retirement age. One cashier worked until she died, Stanton recalled.
Today, the butcher, John Toriello, who celebrated his 90th birthday behind Stanton's meat counter this April, is the only employee remaining. He's worked part time for Stanton since retiring from the family grocery store his father founded in the early 1900s.
Finding reliable employees started to become a major challenge about two years ago, Stanton said. "I'd run an ad in the paper and get 20 applicants. I'd pick the best three or four to interview and then I'd hire the best one or two." But the turnover was quick. "I didn't know if they'd stay two days, two weeks or two hours. I'd have people make me feel 10 feet tall. They'd shake my hand and say, 'Thank you, Mr. Stanton. I really need this job.' Then they wouldn't even show up."
Dishonest employees, workers who had a habit of dipping into the register, also became a problem in recent years. Stanton said more than one worker walked off with cash that belonged to the store. "Whenever somebody's in your pocket," he said, "it's a big problem."
Customers, many of whom have shopped at Stanton's for generations, are frantic with the pending closing, the store owner said. "This store has been an institution, that's what one customer told me." Others have offered to work for Stanton if he'll keep the store open.
Minimum staffing
Ideally, Stanton said, he needs five employees to operate the store; three employees and himself is the absolute minimum. Over the years he's tried to accommodate workers, offering full-time and part-time work to suit their desires, but that didn't work.
"At a large store with 70 employees, finding someone to fill in when somebody calls off might not be difficult, but when you only have three employees, it can be a problem," he explained.
Although he's closing the store, Stanton has no plan to retire. He's 61 and said, "If I feel as good as I do now, I'll work forever."
What's next
What his work will be is uncertain. He owns the building Stanton's Market occupies and is contemplating transforming it into a small deli that he could operate with only one employee. He's also thought about selling the equipment and property and doing something new. "I'm really stuck," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
Stanton is also unsure of exactly when the market will close. The perishables -- meat and produce -- have been sold. Canned goods, frozen foods, cleaning supplies and miscellaneous items are clearance-priced at 30 percent to 50 percent off. When the shelves are bare, Stanton said, the store will close.
Finding an alternative
In the meantime, longtime customers, including Stanton's wife, Eileen, are scrambling to find a new place to buy their meat.
"I shopped here before I knew him," Eileen Stanton said. "Now I have to go somewhere else, and I don't like it. The prices at other places are terrible."
Stanton's Market was best-known for its custom-cut meats and Toriello's secret-recipe dry sausage. Meat sales at the store accounted for up to 75 percent of business.
Stanton's Market was originally owned by the Swartz family. Stanton renamed it when he took over. In the late '80s, Stanton also merged Toriello's family grocery business into his store.
kubik@vindy.com