Photo by Tom Gilchrist • Watrousville Market owner Bekki Guild, right, is shown with manager Dawn Schoenow inside the store, which will host a grand opening event Thursday through Saturday.
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
WATROUSVILLE — The Watrousville Market will give away free hot dogs and chips Saturday, and various prizes during its grand opening event starting tomorrow, but Juniata Township residents have been celebrating since the business reopened Nov. 14.
“It’s kind of a big deal, because the (Watrousville United) Methodist Church and this store are what’s left here,” said Ryan Henry, 39, a customer at the Watrousville Market last week.
“All my life I’ve been coming in here pretty much,” said Henry, who lives about a mile from Watrousville.
“It’s very nice in here,” Henry said to Watrousville Market owner Bekki Guild and manager Dawn Schoenow after entering the business at M-81 and Ringle Road.
The market had been closed for almost three years when Guild and her fiancé, Brian Hiser, opened it up in November.
Vassar’s Walk the Line Stripping LLC, a floor contractor, created a new look on the store’s concrete floor. Guild added new cabinets and woodwork accented with cherry wood.
“Everybody that comes in says ‘Oh my gosh, it’s nice in here,’” said Schoenow, who formerly worked at Richville Gas.
Customers do business at a new granite checkout counter, where workers will serve free hot dogs and chips from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday as part of the grand opening.
From Thursday through Saturday, customers can enter their names in a drawing that will award various prizes on display in the store.
The market sells milk, eggs, bread, candy, liquor and lottery tickets, along with beer, wine, Walt’s Crawlers fishing bait and a variety of household items, over-the-counter medicines and grocery items. Michigan Brand meats such as smoked beef, hickory stick and pepper corn smoked turkey are popular, Guild said.
Guild hopes to add more variety at the market, including hand-dipped ice cream in the coming months. She also seeks a pizza oven, and plans to sell fresh produce grown in a garden off Merry Road this summer.
“We want to expand on our variety of groceries, too,” Guild said. “I have a lot more shelving in the back that I want to get filled.”
The store sells fresh fruit in addition to breakfast items that can be heated in a microwave, and Guild said she’s glad to have Schoenow on board.
“She has that personality that, in the mornings, people love,” Guild said. “I have people I’ve never known who come over to shop this way just because she’s here.”
Guild, a full-time employee at Kingston Community Schools who works in the elementary school office and oversees transportation, logs about 25 hours per week at the Watrousville Market.
The store hours are from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
While Hiser owns the building, Guild owns the business. “We live just a mile from here, and (Hiser) has always wanted to own this store,” Guild said.
Ryan Henry, the store customer, appreciates the couple’s decision to save the market.
“I’m pretty glad to have it back, especially if you live close and want to grab a gallon of milk or something,” Henry said.