After 53 years of serving Athens, The Farmacy Natural & Speciality Foods, on Stimson Avenue, Athens, is in the process of closing.
Owners Carrie and Kevin Tidd announced the impending closure on Nov. 1 on social media. They want to reassure the store’s loyal customers that they’ll be accessible through email, and their web and social media pages.
Among the Tidds’ reasons for the impending closure include:
– Competition from similar local businesses,
– The COVID-19 pandemic,
– The prolonged closure of Stimson Avenue for construction purposes.
The couple said that the Stimson Avenue closure in 2021 diminished the business’s buying power, cut the store off from distributors, and forced the company to lose $500,000.
“We tried to bounce back after the pandemic,” Kevin Tidd said in an interview. “But, not having access to Stimson Avenue motivated more and more people to start shopping somewhere else. Eventually, we reached a point where we just knew we couldn’t keep our heads above water anymore.”
In 2011, when a sales rep informed Kevin Tidd that The Farmacy was for sale, he thought his dream of owning his own natural food store was finally coming true.
At the time, he had been the manager of Mother Earth Foods in Parkersburg, West Virginia, for 25 years. The establishment was also where he met his future wife, Carrie, a store employee.
Eager to put their stamp on this iconic Athens business, the couple took a leap of faith and purchased The Farmacy.
Founded by Athens native Barry Wolfe in 1970, The Farmacy began as a one-room shop that sold commodities such as brown rice, unsweetened peanut butter and organic local produce. Later on, Barry and his then-wife, Donna, partnered with Tom and Sue Zano.
Some changes this foursome made to the store included increasing its inventory, opening a natural foods deli, and relocating The Farmacy to its current location at 28 W. Stimson Ave.
In the mid-1980s, the Wolfes decided to move on, and the Zanos became pioneers in the health food scene throughout Appalachia, until they decided to sell their business to Carrie and Kevin Tidd.
Kevin recalled, “When we first took over The Farmacy, our goal was to transform our business into an information hub, and a wellness staple for the community.”
He added, “Since Carrie and I are both certified holistic nutritionists and herbalists, we wanted to build our customer base, then help them connect the dots in each of their wellness journeys.”
One of those customers was Katherine Ziff, who was especially impressed by the store’s herb room.
“The Farmacy always had a well-stocked herb room, and they keep relatively large amounts of many herbs and spices in bulk storage jars,” Ziff said. “The herb room is also well organized and easy to use — I will miss it!”
In addition to bringing their health and wellness-based knowledge and experience to the area, the Tidds also established long-term, close knit, relationships with their clientele, especially local seniors like Sandy Goldenberg.
“When the pandemic hit, Carrie and Kevin of The Farmacy offered free delivery with call-in orders,” Goldenberg said. “For the first time in my life, I began to have a personal relationship with my grocer. And, because the orders were done by phone, I didn’t have to deal with the limitations of online ordering.”
When Goldenberg learned that The Farmacy would be closing, he stated, “Athens is losing a great resource!”
Then, there were customers like, Tim Martin, who turned to the Tidds when his father faced significant health issues.
Martin commented, “Before ‘gluten free’ was all the rage, my dad was pretty much allergic to everything in the ‘90s, and they (Carrie and Kevin) were always fantastic in finding me special breads he could eat.
“I just always remember my dad being so grateful for being able to find things he could eat that weren’t ‘bad’ and even sometimes just didn’t taste good,” Martin said. “The Farmacy was a lifesaver in helping my dad live a somewhat normal life with all of his food restrictions.”
Carrie Tidd said that one of the things she’ll miss the most about The Farmacy is the day-to-day interactions she had with customers. “Over the years, we created this little micro-community of customers who became our friends.
“Many times, someone would come into the store to get something. But, we would end up hanging around talking about what was going on in their lives,” Carrie continued. “I’m really going to miss that.”
While Carrie and Kevin Tidd don’t have a specific closure date for their store, they plan to stay open long enough so their employees can find other jobs.
“Even after the store is closing, we want our customers to know they can still reach out to us for any questions they might have,” Kevin said. “Although, we aren’t sure what our next move will be, they need to know we’ll still be there for them.”
Kevin sees the closure of The Farmacy as a bittersweet sign of the times.
“Local small businesses are the life blood, and cash flow, of communities like Athens,” he said. “So, I hope this reminds people how important it is to keep mom-and-pop businesses alive so that they don’t become a thing of the past.”
Source: The Athens News