BY SKYLER, DEB AND TIM SMITH
OWNERSHIP ~ At the Mendon Meadows Marketplace I interviewed the store’s co-owner Tom Ditucci and his sister Titch Tyson. I asked about the connection between the Honeoye Falls Marketplace and the Mendon Marketplace. As it turns out Tom Ditucci and Deric West each own 50% of the MMP while the HFMP is solely owned by Deric. They share employees and advertising but are actually separate companies.
NIGHTMARES ~ When I interviewed them last fall, Halloween was looming on the horizon so I asked them what their scariest nightmare was. Turns out, the ghoul that haunts their dreams is the loss of power. Think about it; if you have a store full of coolers and freezers, to say that the power going out is a bad thing would be an understatement. Their back-up generator powers the cash registers, the deli slicer, and sporadic lighting throughout the store. If an outage continues for more than two hours they are in constant contact with RG&E for status updates.
After two hours, they have to start a process of bringing in ice and in a worst case scenario, which has only happened a few times, they’ve actually had to bring in refrigeration trucks, and move all of the vulnerable inventory from the store to the trucks. Obviously when the power is restored, everything has to get moved back which results in significant inconvenience as well as expense.
EMPLOYEE STORIES ~ After I started writing my articles for the Sentinel I began to ask the Marketplace workers I know if they had any interesting stories about the store. I’ve collected some of my favorites for you here. I’ll lead off with Courtney who was a girl I actually met several years ago when Dad was the director of summer rec.
Courtney shared the following story with us. Upon hearing a husband reprimanded by his wife for not grabbing a shopping cart, the husband said, “Last time I grabbed a cart you criticized me.” The wife responded, “It wasn’t the fact that you grabbed a cart; it was the location of the cart grab. At the Marketplace the cart would be a wise decision. When we stop by 7-Eleven and I see you opt for the large size shopping cart, I can’t help but question the healthfulness of the abundance of purchases which are about to fill the large cart you’ve called into action at the convenience store.”
FAVORITE EMPLOYEE ~ And regarding current employees here’s our hot tip. If while walking through the produce section you notice a dark haired girl with a ponytail protruding through the hole in the back of her baseball cap check out the name tag. If it says “Rachel” give her a shout out . . . the smile this girl will flash back at you is guaranteed to warm your heart throughout your entire shopping excursion.
I’m saving my best MMP employee stories for last, so please return to the checkout aisle one more time to pick up your receipt for my final segment on the Mendon Marketplace.
