Hegedorn's Market: 70 Years On

Courtesy Webster on the Web (they also use Creative Commons)

 Indie grocery store Hegedorns on NY 404 (Ridge Road) in the Rochester suburb Webster will close in June due to increasing competition from Wegmans (based across town), ALDI, Tops, and Walmart (go figure). It was the prèmiere mom and pop supermarket in the region and sadly one of the last. I've never been myself, but I've known about it for a long time, and it's not unlike so many around the country, even though this is more in a bigger area as opposed to a small town, yet the loss is a blow to the community either way. Classic case, you know. Like its counterparts in CNY, WNY and beyond, they had things the big box didn't. Some shoppers drove over from nearby Wayne County, which is more rural and may have a chain here and small place there like anywhere in the industrialised world.

Hegedorns started as a franchise of IGA (originally as a dairy back in the Great Depression), but in later decades, carried ShurFine and Western Family, then Best Yet in more recent memory, like many other  independents. Several others, including a couple Big M's, will still have Best Yet in Monroe, Wayne, Genesee and Ontario Counties. As for the store, it can't just sit empty. I have a gut feeling it could become a Tops (all the closest ones are almost eight miles away, and they may be ready to expand again after last years merger with Price Chopper/Market 32). That seems like selling out, but it might work, since they bought similar properties down the NY 104/Lake Ontario corridor in the past decade.  In my usual lists, I also put in Lidl, Grocery Outlet and maybe one other, but those may not be appropriate for that type of place. Maybe Hegedorns could relocate to the city proper ten miles away, where they could use a store, since there was an article in local alt-monthly City Newspaper a couple years back about the inner city being a "food swamp" to vulnerable populations (same here in Syracuse and countless cities coast-to-coast for those of us who can't just drive somewhere else when the bus isn't as convenient, but more on that another day).  The owners still have local fast food chain Bill Grays/Tom Wahls and additional businesses to fall back on (Grays were once in CNY). Still, loyal shoppers are gutted to see Hegedorns become another textbook statistic of a changing economy and society. It just tells us to keep supporting local business that are still around or they won't be anymore. Long live Hegedorns.

UPDATE: The owners decided to delve up the property into thirds according to CBS 8, NBC 10, ABC 13, PBS 21, Fox 31 and the local paper. At least it won't lay to waste like so many others. Still, Webster is a community in its own right, not just a place outside Rochester.