The atmosphere at the Kroger store on Jefferson Street feels like the last hour of a family reunion. Customers greet employees with hugs and looks of concern; employees look wistful, yet continue working even as shelves empty and lines grow short.

Saturday is the last day local residents will be able to shop at the Kroger store on South Jefferson at Forrest Street.

“Its closing is due to poor operating results, and the fact that we were at the end of our lease term,” said Kroger spokesman Glynn Jenkins of Atlanta.

The store opened in its current location in 1975. It operated across Jefferson Street in the Athens Shopping Center from 1963 or 1964, according to employees. Kroger officials could not confirm the year the first store opened.

Jenkins said the company does not plan to relocate. “There are no immediate plans to open a Kroger store in Athens, Ala.,” he said, but at least one employee thinks Kroger may consider locating near Interstate 65, where a business boom is underway, in another year or two.

As the final day nears, employees and customers are emotional.

“Coming in and seeing these shelves empty, it’s like a part of you leaving,” said 31-year Kroger veteran Jeanette Holden. “Customers are coming up to people and hugging them. It’s sad.”

The sadness comes not just from the closing of a business. Because of the low turnover of employees, this store is a place where everybody knows your name. Employees tell their years with Kroger: 27 years, 21 years, 30 years, 37 years. Customers are as loyal: 35 years, 17 years, 14 years, 25 years.

The Kroger Co. made arrangements to move displaced employees to other store locations, but the transfers will mean long drives for most. The majority accepted jobs in Decatur, a 40-minute round-trip commute; Hartselle, an hour, 10 minute round-trip commute; and Oakwood Avenue in Huntsville, an hour, 20 minute round-trip commute.

“I think everybody in the store is going to have hardships,” said Linda Hill, who has been with Kroger 21 years and will transfer to the Oakwood store.

Jenkins said the company worked with employees to ensure they had employment opportunities.

“At least we’re not without a job,” said long-time employee Mae Dean McMahan. “Everybody got a job, but because of circumstances, some folks couldn’t go.”

Some did not accept transfer offers—one because she was near retirement and wanted to spend time with her aging parents, another because she has no transportation and walked to work.

Belinda Motter, who has worked for Kroger 27 years, said she accepted the transfer because she wants to get in her 30 years before leaving the company, but it will cause hardships.

“I’ll have to travel at least 105 miles a day,” she said.

Motter’s husband works nights and she was offered a job on the night crew at the Hartselle store, which means no one will be home to care for her wheelchair-bound daughter, Kattie, 20.

“She’ll probably have to stay with somebody,” Motter said. Motter also has a younger daughter, Jackie, 18.

Motter said leaving the Athens store would be difficult because she knew her co-workers and customers.



‘Everybody is so nice’



Mary and Dean Steele live in Elkmont Rural Village, but for 20 years they have driven into Athens to shop at Kroger.

“We go to church here, we bank here, so when we come to town, we shop here, too,” Mary Steele said. “We hate to think of them closing. There are a lot of things we love about this store. We’ve gotten such good service. Everybody here has been so nice.”

Mary said their shopping trip Thursday afternoon would be their last.

“There’s too much that isn’t on the shelves now,” she said.

Donnie Hill said she’s been a Kroger customer for 35 years. “I like the prices, I like the employees,” she said. “I’m going to have to find me another place.”

She stopped to talk with Reda Davis, who said she has been coming to Kroger for 17 years, mainly because of prices and double coupons. Her grandfather shopped at the store before he died, she said.

“A lot of elderly rely on this store and they know all the faces that are here,” she said, adding that as long as the store was “breaking even,” it should stay open.

Delma Brackeen said he has come to the store for 25 years.

“I come here every week,” he said. “They have some brands I can only get here.”

Kroger debuted its Cost Cutter brand in 1981 and now offers a variety of items available only at Kroger stores.

“It’s very hard”

Bela Roy, who works in the deli, lives only five minutes from the Athens store, but will soon work in Decatur.

Her husband is disabled and they share a car, said Roy, who has worked at the store 14 years.

“It is very hard,” she said.

Jeanette and Dwight Holden have been working for Kroger longer than they’ve been married. In fact, they’ve spent their 16-year marriage working together at the Jefferson Street store. Jeanette, who now works in the deli, has worked for The Kroger Co. for 31 years. In November, Dwight will have been with Kroger 37 years.

“I’ve worked everything,” he said. “Payroll, front end, back door receiver, whatever needs to be done.”

Dwight will work at the Hartselle store after Saturday, but he and Jeanette agreed she should take the severance package. She would have been sent to the Decatur store.

“Basically, to keep her from being on the road all the time,” he said. “We won’t have to worry about two vehicles on the road.”

Jeannette said she wants to spend time with her parents, who are 90 and 92, and her grandchildren.

She started at Kroger when her daughter reached school age.

“She said, ‘I’m not going to (school). Mama would be by herself,’” Jeanette recalls with a laugh. So she took a part-time job and helped open the new store in 1975.

“They’ve been good to me over the years,” she said.

Eventually, Jeanette became head deli clerk.

“I’ll miss everybody, all of our customers,” she said. “I’ll wonder about them.”

Jeanette said she plans to work on “closing day.”

“It’s sad,” she said. “But it will be happy to go home, too. I’ve got a lot of plans.”