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Nemenz IGA in Hubbard closes after 16 months
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Owners have no plans for reopening the store.
HUBBARD — The Nemenz IGA store that has been a presence on West Liberty Street for 16 months has closed.
Shoppers looking to visit the store Monday were greeted with a handwritten sign taped to the front door that simply read: “Sorry, Hubbard location closed. Please visit us at Lincoln Knolls, Canfield or Struthers.”
In recent days, signs inside the store informed patrons that milk and other staples were no longer available and some shelves were empty of any product.
Cars cruised into the store’s parking lot Monday, slowing down enough to read the sign before speeding up and leaving the lot.
Several would-be shoppers walked up to the door to read the sign more closely with one man tapping on the glass to confirm what he had already read. The persistent man was turned away by an employee inside the store.
The customers leaving the parking lot were still greeted by protesters from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 880 holding signs asking patrons not to shop at the Hubbard store. The protesters have been picketing outside the store for more than a year.
Henry Nemenz, store owner, said it is the protesters that ultimately led to the store’s closing. The store opened under Nemenz’s ownership in May 2007, and the protests began in September 2007.
“From the time we opened in Hubbard, for those first five months, we had no picketers and were doing $150,000 to $160,000 a month more [in sales] than after the picketers arrived,” he said.
Protesters still picketing in front of the store Monday would not comment on the situation but did provide a number to the union headquarters in Cleveland. Mark Rock, union representative in Cleveland, said he was not aware the store had closed and would not make any comments but did offer a press release from union President Thomas Robertson.
“If Mr. Nemenz wants to see the real reason for the closing, he need only look in the mirror,” the release states. “When he took over the former Patton’s IGA store, a union store whose employees were represented by Local 880, he refused to hire the store’s employees, all loyal and hard-working residents of the community, many with 10, 15, and even 20 years of service. Instead Mr. Nemenz hired workers from outside Hubbard and paid them less in wages and benefits so he could put more money in his own pockets.”
Nemenz disputes the union’s claim — saying that most of the employees did not apply for work in the store after it was opened under his ownership. Of those who applied, he said, eight were kept on the new store’s payroll.
Some of the store’s supporters recently had a support picket at the store, but the grocer said it was just too little, too late. He said there was some consideration to remain open another quarter, but the costs of restocking shelves and continued loss of profits from the protests squelched that idea.
Nemenz said there is no chance he will consider reopening the store at the Hubbard location.
“They won. They won the battle, except I don’t know what exactly they won,” he said of the protests against the store.
jgoodwin@vindy.com