Goodbye, Grand Union: What we’re losing

Everyone remembers their first job. I will definitely remember mine, even though according to the internet, it doesn’t exist. That’s right: If you Google “Grand Union Family Markets” and go to Wikipedia, you’ll be told that there are no more stores in existence.  

Our Grand Union slipped under the radar somehow. It stood strong through the selling, rebranding, and demolishing of the rest of its species, and while they closed down one by one, it somehow survived. Come Feb. 25, it will be gone, too.

I’ve worked there for almost two years now, and while the internet doesn’t know we exist, Grand Union is important both to me and to our town. Here’s what we’re losing:

 Conversations, so many

The best words of advice I’ve ever gotten were from a customer who I only talked to for 10 minutes and never saw again. Working as a cashier and interacting with so many different people gives you a full and uncensored bird’s-eye-view perspective of the community around you. Each customer forms one tiny part of the landscape, and you naturally begin to see what unites them all — the patterns and trends, the similar moods and troubles people hold, and even the same jokes that are made over and over.

No one person stands out from the others. No one seems strange or foreign at all. It took me a while to realize this: I can’t relate to each individual customer, but all of them together form a presence and personality that reminds me strikingly of one thing — myself. It’s the most comforting thing I know: that we are each a microcosm of the people around us and our species as a whole.

No matter what terrible things are happening in the news or in your personal life, you are part of something so large and reliable, so constant, repetitive and universal. It’s so easy to distance ourselves from anyone outside our circles of friends and like-minded people. 

For me, working at Grand Union is the perfect antidote to the internet, where arguments replace healthy conversations and everything is “us vs. them.” I can’t trust the internet at all — not only does it lie about how many Grand Unions exist, I see how it robs me and others of our ability to empathize. Grand Union always gave it back. 

President Obama said it in his farewell speech: “If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try talking to one of them in person.” I’ve talked to hundreds of them, and let me tell you, it’s worth it.

 Convenient access to food and more

As a town, we’re losing a convenient place to buy food, and for those without cars, the only place to buy it. But Grand Union provides more than just food — many people use our Western Union money transfer system to send and receive payments internationally, and the bottle and can deposit machines are in constant use. In a 6-hour shift, I usually take in about $4 worth of bottle return slips, on average. That means that at 5 cents a bottle, we’re recycling hundreds every week.

We are losing a store that is shabby and outdated, but represents a Millerton of the past. Is it just me, or is Millerton feeling more and more like the set of a movie? Picture-perfect yet somehow inauthentic? Ideal to walk through but not to live in, with three antiques stores but no grocery stores?

In 2007, Millerton was just starting to become “cool,” and it made “10 Best” lists, including a list in Budget Travel Magazine of “The 10 Coolest Small Towns in New York.” At the end of that article, a then-local store owner is quoted as saying about Millerton: “It’s full of independent businesses instead of chain stores, so you see products that reflect what the community really wants.” 

Well, what the community really wants is a grocery store that has cheap prices. I know because I hear this from customers every single day. Many of us have been rooting for a large chain store to move in simply because of the affordability factor. And I hope Millerton hasn’t become so “cool” that the very real wants of the community are being ignored in favor of maintaining our cute, small-town local independent business reputation.

The closing of the last Grand Union is not some huge tragedy. It’s just the way things change, and there’s more of that change to come. As you may have heard, it’s likely that another grocery store will move in within a month of our closing; plans are currently in the works for this. When a new store does come in, it will replace Grand Union in most if not all of the ways I’ve stated above. But for now, join me in wishing Grand Union the farewell it deserves.

 Cordelia Schiller lives in Lakeville and has worked at Grand Union during her breaks from school for the past two years.