Midtowne Market To Close?
Brent Finnegan -- January 12th, 2010
Midtowne Market is closing.
The locally-owned convenience store opened in January 2007, and was mentioned in several posts here. David Miller, a former hburgnews contributor is part-owner.
I, for one, will miss it.
Photo by Renee via the hburgnews Flickr pool.
UPDATE: I have learned there is a group working on plans to keep Mindtowne open. In other words, it might not close for good. More details as they become available.
Tags: downtown, Harrisonburg
30 Responses to “Midtowne Market To Close?”
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What a drag. This was my favorite addition to downtown in the past few years.
Cheap hotdogs, great beer selection, quality affordable coffee, as well as small random purchases like cough drops. Midtowne fit a niche in downtown that was welcome for those of us who work downtown.
Dave, it will be missed.
Sad news. I didn’t frequent as I don’t live or work downtown, but it was great to have as an option.
Seems like one of those situations where the forward-thinking owner was clearly ahead of his time.
If Harrisonburg’s downtown continues to grow as anticipated, there could be a day where there are multiple convenience stores around the downtown area.
That sucks a lot! I was in there all the time when I worked downtown.
Yeah, this is really too bad. I thought it filled a niche downtown, too!
Major bummer. Hubby loved walking down for some beer selections. Sorry to see them go!
This is a real loss for our downtown.
Part of what I miss about working in Hburg, was a daily pop in to buy, whatever.
Sad to see it close.
See, being that I do all my business in H-burg, but do not work there, I don’t get to hear or find out about places like this. This is one of the reasons why I’m working towards finding employment in Harrisonburg.
Not that I make anything close to enough to “save” any businesses, but my commute keeps me from finding places of this nature.
*sigh*, it’s a shame to see good small businesses go.
Noooooo…..!!!
Damnit, if people want to have local businesses, we have to buy from local businesses…
I refuse to act like this is a funeral.
Dave, is there no way to keep it going? What do you need friend?
Don’t get me wrong, working downtown, having a store in such close proximity. But just to play devil’s advocate for a minute, it’s hard get a lot of business when everything is 50 cents overpriced (cigarettes, drinks for example) than anywhere else in town.
That being said, it will still be sad to see it go. Where Jonny gonna hock his discs now!
Sad, sad, sad.. Could have really worked if management was not so out of touch… No good suggestions were taken seriously (Mr. Miller) to make it work successfully. There was plenty of business even with high prices (still lower then 7-11).
Specifically what do you mean, Joanne? What suggestions?
I have to say that Dave was about 50-50 with my suggestions, which is about what I would expect of a business owner.
I suggested a few beer selections that he started to carry a week or two later. When jalapeños were taken off the hot dog cart our office complained and a couple of days later they were back.
Granted soda’s cost 40 cents more than they did across the street at Shank’s and you couldn’t find a bag of chips for under $1, but you have to expect things like that from a small convenience store.
Brent: “Specifically what do you mean, Joanne? What suggestions?”
I for one have been more than willing to pay a little extra for the convenience. Walking from downtown to 7/11 to buy crappy beer isn’t a realistic option. I’m not sure what could replace Midtowne for me.
It’s a small locally owned convenience store and I expected to pay more when I went in there than I would at 7-11. I don’t have a problem with that at all. I also noticed that they took a lot of the suggestions from customers, so I have no idea what Joanne is talking about. I’m guessing he just didn’t take her suggestions.
One of the biggest suggestions was to keep the early opening for the folks who work downtown. At 10:00 am most are already at work, had their coffee and have the paper. Tim has the right idea on the beer selections. The best beer store by far. I do not believe that I am the only one with the early am opening point.
Coffee in the morning and specialty beer at night!
I might suggest … try to find out what the biggest craze is at other convenience stores across the country or just look for something different that, hardly no one else carries. Make home made cheese cake a specialty item for the store…in other words, start brain storming!!! YOU CAN DO IT!
I agree, Lowell…that is why I kinda rambled in my comment before yours…I would like to buy local if I was local. However, commuting like I do eliminates the idea of anything being “local” to me.
I do agree with your sentiments, though.
I’m kind of in a similar position Phil, our office is just North of Harrisonburg and I am very seldom downtown. But any time I am there with the girls we would visit the Midtown Market. I like to do as much business locally as I can.
To put in a plug for some great local (Central Valley) businesses:
Lucas Roasting Company of Broadway
When I ran for House and when Dianne ran for Clerk we got our printing done at Branner Printing in Timberville and First Class Services in Harrisonburg and Friendship Industries were our mail houses.
Dang it. Whenever I needed a cheap lunch I would stop by and get 2 dollar hot dogs. It’s like a block and a half from where I work, so it was definitely the fastest and cheapest place to grab a lunch.
Doh!
Not to worry. Someone is waiting to reopen the place.
please email davidmiller@midtownemarket.com if you are interested in purchasing this great turnkey operation.
Thanks for everyone’s support
http://harrisonburg.craigslist.org/bfs/1554693831.html
David is one of the best business owner’s I’ve ever met. If someone buys the place I hope all of the staff that work there stay. They are all awesome people with great attitudes towards life. I work downtown & go to Midtowne daily. If someone buys it they better not up the hot dog/drink combo price or I will picket!
dave,
i don’t mean to be cheeky, but if it’s making money, why is closing on the table?
Midtowne is closed as of yesterday, but might reopen if they can find a buyer.
From today’s DNR:
Best beer selection and cheapest lunch in town.
Now what do I do…