Geissler’s Supermarket in South Windsor has announced that it would be closing its doors for good on July 17.
“After careful consideration, we want to share that Geissler’s has made the difficult decision to close our South Windsor location on July 17,” Geissler’s posted Monday on Facebook. “We’re incredibly grateful to our South Windsor customers and team for all the support over the years. It’s been our honor to be part of this community. Thank you for shopping local and for allowing us to be part of your lives for the last 37 years. We hope to continue serving you at our other locations.”
The grocery store has been located at 965 Sullivan Avenue since 1988.
According to the company website, Geissler’s Supermarkets started in 1923 in Broad Brook, which is part of East Windsor. At that time, it was called A. F. Geissler named after founder Adolph F. Geissler. The grocery chain is now led by Bob Rybick, president and chief executive officer at Geissler’s Supermarket along with Eric Nilsson, Ryan Nilsson and Andrew Rybick, all great-grandsons of founder A.F. Geissler.
Geissler’s has five remaining locations in the state including Bloomfield, East Windsor, Somers, Granby and Windsor. There is also a Massachusetts location in Agawam.
Bob Rybick said he had a sentimental connection to the South Windsor store because that was the store he grew up going to with his grandfather. He started worked there as a teenager. Bob Rybick said he told the 15 full-time employees on Monday morning the news and called the others who weren’t there. Store management spoke with the 20 part-time employees on Tuesday morning.
Bob Rybick said “a good majority” of the full-time employees have accepted positions at one of the other Geissler’s locations.
Two employees remained with the company throughout the entire Geissler’s duration in South Windsor since 1988, according to Bob Rybick. Both worked at that location when it was another grocery store. One now works in the management office and the other works in the dairy department.
Many of the store’s customers expressed their disappointment that the store planned to close on social media.
One customer posted, “Best store around! Healthy foods, unique brands, always best pastries.”
Another said, “Heartbreaking especially for all your wonderful employees that work there! Thank you for being our hometown grocery store. We’ll miss you!”
“I’ve shopped there for over 30 years boy will I miss this store,” another customer commented.
Bob Rybick said he appreciates all of the comments.
“I think it’s fantastic. We always knew that there was a loyal group of people there, and that’s why we were able to keep the store open as long as we have despite being the only tenant in the plaza. So, I think that kind of just reflects how loyal those people were,” Bob Rybick said.
Bob Rybick noted that being the lone tenant in the plaza was a detriment and one of the reasons for the store closing. He said he would consider returning to South Windsor under different circumstances.
“The location was always good, but the way the chips fell, we never had the opportunity to remodel that store the way we envisioned it. So that’s kind of been the challenge there,” Bob Rybick said. “Before I took over the company (in 2019), I had a draft lease to expand the store in and remodel and we were working through that. And the property owner, he had the ability to acquire the neighboring property. … He had approached the town about a larger redevelopment project, including apartments and a new parking lot and redoing the entire center. … It never came to fruition.
“We got to the point where being the only tenant, a lot of people who are new to town, they drive by and they don’t know if anything’s open because the rest of the place looks empty,” Bob Rybick added. “The loyal customer base continued, but over time, people move on or pass away or whatever, and so that gets whittled down. And you know that, unfortunately, the redevelopment project never came to fruition for a variety of reasons.”
South Windsor Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said there were some proposals in 2019 for a zone change from the owner of the plaza to do a mixed-use commercial residential development in the area which included Geissler’s as part of the plan.
“It did a few rounds through planning and zoning, but they never came in and actually did a site plan,” Maniscalco said. “So that’s kind of the next big step for that location and we to come in and actually go through the site plan and actually do the finals for the planning and zoning process. And then we could work with them on seeing what we could do to get them off the ground and start doing some type of redevelopment there.”
Bob Rybick said the company has a good relationship with the building’s landlord and two of its other locations are through the same property owner.
“I saw in a lot of (Facebook) comments that many people weren’t surprised (by the closure),” Bob Rybick said. “We were supporting the landlord. And obviously the town was supportive of us, so we wanted to stay there. But as time went on sales dwindled a little bit, with the condition of the parking lot, we had a long discussion with the landlord about where he was and what his thoughts were on if there was going to be a redevelopment there and we had an option in our lease. We took the option to leave.
“We left the conversation open that if there is development in the future, we can talk about that, and it might not be goodbye. It might just be so long for now. And if the project does move forward, then we could talk about whether we want to come back in a different form or fashion,” Bob Rybick added.
Bob Rybick said closing sales will start as early as Wednesday to clear out some inventory with additional discounts.
“I think a lot of our residents were sad to see they’ve decided to close the store in our community,” Maniscalco said. “It was the hometown place to go get groceries for many years.
“As unfortunate as it is to have the grocery store leaving, maybe it’s a silver lining that it opens up other opportunities to really take a hard look at what that could be,” Maniscalco added. “Maybe look at some things a little differently in that area.”