Chatham Village Market To Change Hands

CHATHAM – Fourteen years after saving the town’s only grocery store, the owners of Chatham Village Market are bowing out.

 Jeff Heap, Scott McDonald and Bob White, who opened the market in 2002 after the long-time A&P store on Queen Anne Road closed, are selling the business as of May 1.

 The store almost closed in 2011 when the property owner announced plans to build a new CVS on the site. Subsequent negotiations and a groundswell of support — including a petition with more than 17,000 signatures — resulted in construction of a new building that accommodated both CVS and the market.

 “We owe a lot to the community,” Heap said in an interview Monday. 

 “But it’s time,” White added. “It was a phenomenal run.”

 Harsh Patel of West Yarmouth, who owns the Dennis Public Market, is purchasing the business. He’ll go before the select board March 11 to transfer the store’s beer and wine license.

 Patel said he plans no changes to the operation of the popular market and will retain the existing staff.

 “The staff is kind of what drives everything,” he said in a telephone interview Monday. “As a customer, you shouldn’t notice a single change.”

 Heap, McDonald and White were all working for A&P in 2003 when the supermarket chain began closing its New England stores, including those in West Chatham (now Ocean State Job Lot) and on Queen Anne Road. Along with McDonald’s wife Tina, they were able to take over the unexpired lease on the Queen Anne Road store and founded Chatham Village Market. At the time, Brewster resident Heap worked at the chain’s West Chatham store; White — a Chatham native and Chatham High School graduate who now lives in Sandwich — worked at an A&P in Sandwich after managing the West Chatham store for 12 years; and McDonald, a Harwich resident, was a district manager for the company. The new store opened on July 3, 2003.

 When the market’s lease expired in 2011, owner Bromley Realty Trust planned to lease the space to CVS, which was leaving its downtown location (now the Chatham Orpheum Theater). After months of discussions, the petition drive and a town meeting vote to change zoning to allow a new building on the site to expand onto an adjacent parcel owned by Bromley, the partners signed a lease and moved into the new 13,000-square-foot space in May 2011.

 The partners say they have prided themselves on the market’s community service, which included donating to many local organizations and remaining open during the COVID pandemic, which they agreed was the biggest challenge during their 22 years of ownership. That, in turn, resulted in a loyal and reliable customer base.

 “We know everybody pretty much by name,” McDonald said of the market’s patrons.

 The store’s 43 year-round employees — 80 to 85 during the busy summer months — are its most important assets, the partners said, and they wanted to make sure everyone would still have jobs. 

 “We really wanted to make sure they continue to be supported,” said White. “[Patel is] getting a good crew, an experienced crew.” During their ownership, they’ve never had to lay anyone off, even during COVID, he added.

 “We were hoping to find someone to keep the business going for the town and the employees,” McDonald said, adding that the landlord has been “accommodating” in working with both parties to transfer the lease.

“It had to be right,” White said. 

 Patel said he became familiar with the market while making deliveries to the Chatham Squire. The Dennis Village Market has a wholesale business with about 25 accounts, including the Squire, and he said he would drive by Chatham Village Market and wonder about its operations. After investigating, he saw that it was similar to the Dennis operation, which he purchased a little over two years ago.

 “It’s the same kind of neighborhood market that Chatham has in the Chatham Village Market,” he said of the Dennis store. “We try to stay involved in the community, and that’s what we want to continue in Chatham.”

 Patel grew up on the Cape and is a graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth High School. He said he intends to remain as involved in the community as the current owners and sees a lot of potential in the market. Expanding sandwich offerings — a Dennis Public Market speciality — and adding catering are areas he’d like to explore, but not before getting a better feel for the operation.

 “I’m not looking to change anything that works,” he said. “I’m looking just to continue the legacy they’ve built up and maintain the reputation and place it holds in town.”

 A purchase and sale agreement sets May 1 for the transfer of ownership. Both the partners and Patel declined to name the purchase price.

 While Heap and McDonald plan to retire, White will devote his time to his sports management and promotion business.

 “It’s been a great run,” White said of the past 22 years. “It’s sad to end, but we’re leaving it in good hands.”