Update: Revamped and restocked, former Sinnett's reopens
Thursday, August 31, 2006 7:03 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
Printable version
E-mail this articleBenita Flanders waited nearly five months for a grocery to reopen at Sinnett's Market Place former location on Commerce Avenue.
"I used to shop there every day," the Longview resident said. "I was really shocked when it closed. It was always so busy and it was so close to my home --- and to lots of people's homes."
Flanders was among scores of customers walking into the Your Market Place, which opened Wednesday at 849 Commerce Ave.
"This store will definitely survive," Flanders said.
New owners Linda and Tom Doerr hope so.
"I can't believe how many people have come in and thanked us for opening the store," Linda Doerr said while greeting customers as they entered the Longview store.
The new store fills one of the Longview-Kelso area's largest vacant buildings only five months after Randy Sinnett closed the doors of the long-time area grocery store in April.
In February, Sinnett also closed the Market Place on Ocean Beach Highway in the Twin City Shopping Center. That site is still vacant.
The Doerrs say they spent an average of 16 hours a day during the past two months working with subcontractors on sprucing up the store.
"There were days I was really happy and then days I thought, 'Did I make a mistake?' " Linda Doerr said.
The opening of Your Market Place brings the Longview-Kelso-Rainier area's collective supermarket space to about 347,000 square feet, which is still below the about 404,000 square feet of space the area had in 2000.
Sinnett's on Ocean Beach Highway, TOP Foods, Thriftway and Rainier IGA closed in the past five years, leaving three Safeways, Fred Meyer and Winco as the only major supermarkets until Your Market Place's opening.
"I feel we have a different flavor here, and I believe there is room for us in this market," Doerr said. "If I didn't think I could make it, I wouldn't have done it."
The Doerrs hired about 65 employes --- including about 25 former Sinnett's workers --- and sells items similar to those Sinnett's sold. However, it features more produce, more organic items and an expanded meat and fish counter.
"The store is brighter, it's more open and we have wider aisles," said Doerr, who spent the past two sleepless nights working in the business with her husband to prepare to open. "But most of the work we did, the customer won't really see."
A metal theft in June, including refrigeration piping from the roof, set back the deal and cost $200,000 to repair. "That was a lot of work, but it's much improved," she said.
Doerr said she also has been overwhelmed by people hugging and thanking her for opening the grocery store.
"I haven't had a business where this many people hug you," she said. "It has been a very emotional day."
The Doerrs, who have lived in the area for 27 years, own three area tanning salons, mini-storage units in Longview and Woodland, Longview Insurance and several area rentals.
Market Place customers haven't seen the last of Doerr. She said she plans to be walking around the store helping customers and employees.
"I'm a very hands on person," she said. "If the floors need scrubbing, I'll be on my knees scrubbing. People will see me out helping, maybe sacking the groceries. This is a team effort."
Mary Meeks of Kelso said she was impressed with the level of service at Your Market Place.
"This store is going to work because there are more people like me who like the smaller shops that are family owned and like to support local businesses," Meeks said.
Mardy Gadberry of Longview, said she was excited just to walk through the remodeled store. Gadberry used to work at the store, then owned by Dick Sinnett and named Thriftway, in the 1960s.
"I like the slower pace here and the friendly checkers," she said. "It's like a neighborhood grocery."
Virginia Witte and her husband drove from their Winlock home to shop at Your Market Place.
"We've been checking on the store ever since Sinnett's closed and been waiting for it to open," Witte said. "We love it here. You get treated like family."
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