A General Store Story
UPDATE: I am delighted to report that this wonderful old store is under contract and the new sellers intend to keep it as a market in some revised form.
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That's the official ad. It's a general store. It's in Cherry Valley. It's for sale. But of course that's just the beginning of the story. Let me tell you about Rury's Food Store.
When I was a kid, my family had a cabin on 100 acres outside of Cherry Valley. We spent every summer there. I adored it and I loved the town of Cherry Valley. It was sleepy and friendly and quiet, and I was way too young to know or understand that Alan Ginsberg and a horde of wild-eyed artists had a place above town where they had a much more adventurous life than I did. But there was always something a bit more interesting in the air than you'd expect from a seemingly-forgotten small upstate New York town.
I brought my own kids to that cabin and we all have happy memories of their times there. To them, this was the town where they could walk down the middle of the main street and only have to keep an eye out for a tractor or a dog. It's where the library was the size of their house back home, and where they could find hilarious old comic books for sale in the back of the market down the road. And it's where they could walk into Rury's and enjoy the satisfying slam of a giant screen door and be welcomed by the same guy who used to greet their mom - Jake Rury.
My kids are grown now. And I've moved back to this area, drawn by a sense that I had to, finally, live here. I started talking to Jake, who was ready to sell his market. I really really wanted to run a general store. He let me run all over the building, and I learned there was a former lawyer's office on the other side, two apartments on the second floor, and an absolutely incredible top floor space that was once used by the Mason's.
It didn't work out; my partner will do almost anything for me, but moving his music studio into an aging building in the middle of a town he hadn't quite warmed to yet (though it won him over eventually) was a step too far. We found a happy compromise in Franklin - a town about an hour away but equally artsy and charming and beautiful. Rury's closed.
And then Jake died.
His sons own the building and they've got no interest in running the store. I got in touch and asked if I could help. They said yes.
And so I find myself representing a property that I still wish I could have bought myself. I can envision the market that could become the new Rury's (and I will hope the name stays). I picture an owner who loves small communities, who wants to come in and become a part of what's here, who appreciates its quirky history, its summer tourism and its winter quiet. I picture a coffee pot that's on in the winter for the plow guys if the local diner isn't open yet, a place with a table or two where the elderly folks know they're welcome to sit down and visit and the local kids know they'll be greeted by name. And I can picture so many things on that amazing third floor that I simply cannot list them all.
I know this town, and it needs a market. It needs an anchor. Right now, folks have to drive twenty minutes for groceries that aren't stocked at the town's convenience store.
The new owner may have other plans. But I'm rooting for a market.
Jake Rury's dad worked in that market, then Jake bought it and raised his family in the apartment upstairs. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P, remember) was once a competitor, but it's gone. It's a health care center now. There was a newer supermarket. It's gone; now an insurance agency. This is one of Jake's boys. He's looking for someone to take over a live/work opportunity that kept his dad and his mom comfortable for their whole lives.
This is what's on offer. It seems to be a good, solid old building. It's a town that sees tourists from nearby Cooperstown and Sharon Springs in the summer. There's a lot of updating to do, particularly the electric, so it requires clear heads. But there's business in town, and there's potential for this to be something very rewarding -- and not just financially.