By George Breithaupt, KnoxPages.com Reporter
GAMBIER – Village Market manager Tim Newton is moving and excited about it. For the last 20 plus years, the Village Market has been a fixture on the corner of Gaskin Avenue and Brooklyn Street in Gambier. But now it will soon be ensconced in a newer, more modern facility and Newton sees nothing but good for the market and for Gambier.
“We’ve equipped the market with brand new freezers, a brand new produce case where we put the cheeses, yogurt, and milk,” Newton said. “We are also working on a new point-of-sale system”
Newton thinks having a market like his is very important and serves the community in many ways.
“I think it (the Village Market) is very important to the community and we take it very seriously,” he explained. “That’s why we are going to try to get it back up and running as soon as we can.”
Newton closed the market on Thursday, June 15th and he intends to re-open today at the corner of Chase Avenue & Brooklyn Street. The move will be largely done by that time but the move will be an ongoing effort. Newton expects to be restocking the shelves in the new market for several weeks.
New Village Market interior – KP Photo by George Breithaupt
“I had to reduce my inventory in order to make the move,” he said. “I have a very good relationship with my distributors and I have a lot of distributors. They are all used to supplying small markets. So I will be getting more stock in on a regular basis.”
The Village Market was formerly owned and operated by Bob & Deb Tier and Roger & Katie Fannin. They ran the market for more than 20 years before selling it seven years ago. The original village market before the Fannins and Tiers was the Hays Market. Newton hopes to find the time to do a little research on the history of the market and perhaps do a timeline of its history.
