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Customers Lament Loss Of South Tampa Grocery Store

Tribune file photo

Whaley's Market in 1936.

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By MICHAEL SASSO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

Updated: 08/06/2008 12:22 am

TAMPA - Whaley's Market isn't the glitziest grocery store in town.

The carpet is worn and splotched. The paint along the side walls is a dull shade of coral. Some wire racks in the refrigerators are old and rusted. A new 39,000-square-foot Publix GreenWise Market going up around the corner promises to outshine and outmerchandize the South Tampa market

When customers heard that Whaley's will close on Sunday, after 74 years in business, it was as if they learned an old friend had passed away.

Pat Bass, who has worked at a nearby construction company for 19 years, said she has bought lunch at Whaley's for so long that the store started letting her and her co-workers come in through the back door normally reserved for employees.

"To hear this is just killing me," Bass said of the store's demise as her eyes welled up.

On Tuesday, news broke that Whaley's would close its doors Sunday after holding a 2-for-1 sale on nonperishable grocery items to clear out merchandise. The store, at 533 S. Howard Ave., notified customers with a letter at the store registers, which says the decision to close "has been one of the most difficult of our lives."

Reached by phone, Ron Whaley, patriarch of the Whaley clan, said the family is shutting the store because of a lease disagreement with the market's landlord. The family would like to relocate in South Tampa if it can find the right space, he said. He declined further comment, citing the difficulty of the day.

Whaley is a 50-50 investor in a limited partnership that owns the Whaley's shopping center on Howard Avenue. The other partner is Charles Mendez, a one-time race car driver and former real estate developer in the Tampa Bay area who now lives in Atlanta. On Tuesday, Mendez said Whaley's Market paid rent to the limited partnership, and recently he and Whaley have been unable to agree on rent. In recent years, Whaley's Market has paid below-market rent, he said.

Mendez said that he will begin trying to find new tenants for the shopping center, which could include a mix of restaurants, retail shops and service companies.

Whaley's Market has been a fixture on South Howard Avenue since 1934, when it was founded as an open-air market by the late C.L. Whaley. At one time, the family operated Whaley's stores in the Carrollwood and Seminole Heights areas of Tampa.

The Howard Avenue store closing is a blow to longtime customers and employees alike, some of whom had worked at Whaley's for decades. Randy McCracken, 58, the meat department manager, has cut meat at Whaley's for 26 years, for a while alongside his father.

"Not many young men - well, middle-age men - can say they worked side-by-side with their dad for years," McCracken said.

Although it wasn't flashy, the store was known for its high-quality vegetables, its selection of hard-to-find items, such as obscure Italian olive oils, and its prepared food counter, where generations of people bought lunch. On Tuesday, it was hard to miss the display of huge, overstuffed twice-baked potatoes piled high with cheddar cheese and bacon bits.

Although the economy has hit some retailers and restaurants hard, it wasn't clear Tuesday whether the poor economy or the future opening of the Publix GreenWise store nearby played into the Whaley family's decision to close.

Deli manager Maryann Mireider said the store had a little sales slump a while back, but seemed to bounce back more recently.

Whaley's is in an area known for its nightlife and young adult scene, but many of the store's customers are older residents of the nearby neighborhoods.

Some lamented that Whaley's closing marks the end of another historic icon, such as the old hardware store called Burt's that stood nearby the long-time grocer.

"I just heard it news of Whaley's closing myself," said Darlene Sims, a retiree who has shopped there for more than 30 years. "I'm shocked; it's an institution."

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.

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