One of my first jobs out of high school was as a meat wrapper for Beit Brothers, not the store in Montville the one in Norwich, which is closed now, but I remember the job fondly.

The owners were there and wanted each employee to feel as if they counted, and for me getting up at 5am to clean meat trays and stand in July in a freezing cooler to wrap meat was not the ideal job, but I learned alot and appreciated the chance.

It is so sad to see this company close its doors, the economy is so hard right now, and it is awful to see a company that has always been there close.


Beit brothers are closing up shop 'with a very heavy heart'
Poor economy, bigger competition, aftermath of lightning strike take their toll on local market that planted its roots a century ago
By Megan Bard Published on 11/1/2008



”The power outage losses, combined with the increased competition from the big box competitors, excessively high energy costs, and a weak economy has led us to conclude that attempts to continue our operation no longer make sense. It is with a very heavy heart, but also with much gratitude to our loyal customers and dedicated staff that we make this announcement at this time. We are very proud to have serviced the Montville community and surrounding towns for over forty-seven years.”

ARTHUR AND NATHAN BEIT, FROM THEIR RELEASE ANNOUNCING THE COMPANY'S CLOSURE

Montville - In 1908, Samuel Beit and his three sons opened a meat market on the west side of Norwich after the Beit family, which had run a cattle business for years, decided to try selling the fresh meat in the marketplace.

The business was a success.

Decades - and generations - later, the small meat market had grown into a full-fledged supermarket, the first located in Norwich's Franklin Square. In time, seven markets - some small, some large - would open throughout eastern Connecticut, from Dayville to Uncasville, although only the Montville store had survived.

In the same year the family-run grocery celebrated its centennial, the third generation of owners, Nathan and Arthur Beit, announced Friday that the economy, competition from larger, chain supermarkets and damage to one of the markets by a lightning strike has put Beit Bros. Super Markets Inc. out of business.

”The way things are … between the lightning strike and the economy the way it is, there is just no business out here. We just had to give up,” Arthur Beit, an owner, said Friday while talking to some customers. He added that there are no future plans for the family business.

”This is it,” he said later in the day.

The Montville store on Route 32, which opened in 1961, will close its doors in the coming days. The Norwich store closed several years ago, and in July the brothers shut down the Dayville market after 36 years.

'It's just so hard
to believe'

Nathan and Arthur Beit shared their decision with their 61 full- and part-time employees Thursday. On Friday morning the men hung signs in the store's Midway Shopping Center windows announcing the decision to their customers.

”It's just so hard to believe that after all these years … I never thought they'd close,” longtime customer Debbie Radachy said Friday afternoon.

Radachy said she was just in the store Thursday and that although some of the shelves seemed bare and the magazine rack was not full, there was no indication that the store was closing.

”I might have shopped at other stores for sales, but my grocery shopping, my main shopping, was done there,” she said.

Dean Tine, co-owner of Montville Hardware with his brother, Shaun, said he hates to see it happening to the Beits. He recalled his father opening the hardware store in the 1970s, next to the Beits' market. The hardware store has since relocated.

”They've been customers of ours and we've been customers of theirs,” Tine said. “You know how it is - we're a small business and in the same deal. I just hate to see it happening to them, a longtime, local business.”

Tine and Radachy also spoke of the Beits' commitment to the community.

Tine said the family continuously supported the local Lions Club by donating time to the organization.

For Radachy, the community spirit is more personal. In the mid-1990s, on Christmas Day and with 40 guests coming for dinner, Radachy discovered that a turkey she had purchased at the store was spoiled. Desperate, she called Nathan Beit at home.

”He went down to the store and let me go get anything I needed,” Radachy recalled. “There's no other store would do that. I was really impressed.”

In July, during powerful storms, the Midway Shopping Center was struck by lightning, causing a power outage. The grocer was forced to discard all of the store's perishable items, including meats, frozen goods and all dairy and deli products.

Loyal customers waited for the shelves to be stocked again, and for the most part they were. But until recently a sign apologizing for the “higher than acceptable” amount of items out of stock remained posted on the doors.

The market did not have adequate insurance to make up for the significant loss and was never able to recover, according to the brothers.

M.BARD@THEDAY.COM