A 'new' Dave's at Hoxsie

By John Howell
Posted 7/21/16

They didn't know what they were up against, but they knew what they wanted. Over the decades Hoxsie Four Corners has been the home to a farm, retail outlets and service stations. Since the 1950s it has been the venue for a supermarket

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

A 'new' Dave's at Hoxsie

Posted

They didn’t know what they were up against, but they knew what they wanted.

Over the decades Hoxsie Four Corners has been the home to a farm, retail outlets and service stations. Since the 1950s it has been the venue for a supermarket primarily serving the neighborhoods of Hoxsie and Governor Francis Farms.

The supermarket has seen changes. It was Almacs until 1995 when Great American bought the store chain and it closed soon thereafter. But in its history as a supermarket no makeover has been so dramatic as that nearing completion as a Dave’s Marketplace.

“Makeover” doesn’t describe the transformation of the store from its interior to its overall size and, most important to the shopper, what it has to offer.

On a recent visit and discussion over coffee – it’s free at Dave’s – with three corporate leaders, two points were evident: Regardless that the chain had its start at Wilde’s Corner as Dave’s Fruitland in 1969 and has grown to nine stores employing 1,400, Dave’s doesn’t consider themselves as one of the “big guys,” nor do they ever want to be a “big guy,” and, secondly, the customer is their first priority.

The marketplace has kept true to its founder and owner Dave Cesario. Produce is up front in the stores. There’s a big variety, it’s abundant, it’s fresh and it is colorfully displayed. And while produce is a staple of the operation, prepared hot and cold foods have become a trademark from pizza that starts selling as early as 10 a.m. on weekdays to sushi. What’s more, most of it is hometown-made right at the Hoxsie kitchen and bakery.

Conversion of the store started a year ago. It still has a way to go. Exterior work is in progress and with demolition of the former Rite Aid building on Warwick Avenue parking will be expanded and there will be landscaping including a clock at the corner.

“We took the ceiling down and there was 60 years of mess,” said director of store development Bob Fabiano. He described a tangle of wires and pipes when the ceiling and walls were opened. What they found apart from an underground gasoline tank, which had belonged to a service station on the site, was that the building had two additions with one of those built directly on top of a former parking lot. There were no plans so crews didn’t know what to expect.

Customers were somewhat at a loss, too. As the store was expanded from 28,000 to 35,000 square feet, the “usual” location of many items moved. More items were added and the store from floor to ceiling transformed without closing.

The familiar brick tower that once bore the Almacs name was crumbling.

“It’s a good thing that it came down,” said Fabiano.

A frequent question from regular customers was, “What happened to the ceiling?”

With the drop ceiling removed, the store rafters are visible, although since everything is painted black they’re not apparent. Lighting is directed to the product with signage, some of it with LED lighting that gives the feeling of a store inside a store, such as the Seafood Shack and the Chop House. The new look also incorporates some of the items that gave the store its Warwick “feel” including the large model airplanes, a reminder that Green Airport is close by.

“We show off what we do best, what the big guys can’t do,” said Fabiano.

The changes, including the replacement of open “coffin” freezer cases, more directed lighting and more efficient equipment have reduced power demands by as much as a third. Similar changes in other stores have resulted in a 1.3 megawatts saving in electricity and earning a Green Grocer Award for the company.

The Airport Road façade of the store is a work in progress. Apart from the removal of the tower, the large plate glass windows will be replaced with smaller ones facing tables with booths in front of the checkout lanes.

It’s at one of those tables where Fabiano, marketing and communication manager Susan Budlong and general manager Bill Hogan sip coffee and chat about all the changes. They are planning a tour of the store with behind the scene stops at the kitchen and the bakery.

“You have to go in the ladies room,” insists Hogan.

There are laughs around the table. How exactly is this going to happen?

The three are serious. What’s so good about the restrooms that they are a highpoint of a store tour?

The answer becomes obvious.

Fabiano knocks loudly on the door to the ladies room. It is silent. He pushes the door open to reveal a brightly lit room with framed prints of beach homes and blue lagoons. The place is spotless.

Fabiano and Hogan wait for a reaction.

“Doesn’t it make you feel like you’re on vacation?” asks Hogan. He’s right.

Fabiano suggests they may have gone over the top with the restrooms (the men’s room is decorated with sports-themed photographs) as he’s already received a complaint from one shopper.

“She told me her husband is going to hate me,” he said.

And why?

“Well, she said she’s going to insist that’s what they have at home.”

A return visit to the store found Heather O’Leary of Cranston and her two daughters selecting cut up fruit from a cooler. O’Leary either shops at the Smithfield or the Hoxsie Dave’s but that’s it. She didn’t shop through the store’s transition.

“I don’t know what it was like before, but it’s great now,” she said.

No, she hadn’t checked out the ladies room, but put that on her list.

Bill Koch was one of those customers who shopped through all the changes of the past year.

“Dave’s is a great store,” he said, “they’re local and they act like a small company.”

Koch has a point. Many of Dave’s employees have been with the company for years and get to know customers on a first name basis.

It’s helped build a community relationship and a sounding board.

“We’re in the neighborhoods,” said Budlong, “we know what people are looking for.”

Beth Groff, another Dave’s regular, said she loves the prepared foods and the bakery. She has shopped other Dave’s markets – East Greenwich is their largest – and now is delighted to find many of the products she found at other stores at Hoxsie.

“I knew what it was going to look like, and I knew it was going to be worth it,” she said.

Comments

2 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • richardcorrente

    I for one am looking forward to the day when the renovations to this great market are complete. My campaign headquarters are next door at 1609 Warwick Ave. in the Gateway Plaza abutting the building Daves is about to demolish. When they do I will enjoy a corner location and I will be relocating my mortgage company (Bankers Mortgage Corporation) into it.

    I look forward to saying "I'll meet you under the Daves clock". In the 60's we used to say "I'll meet you under the Shephards clock" in downtown Providence. That was before we had the malls.

    Nostalgia.

    Enjoy your Summer. Hope your nostalgic memories are as good as mine.

    Richard Corrente

    Endorsed Democrat for Mayor

    Thursday, July 21, 2016 Report this

  • RISchadenfreude

    Since Shaw's is based in Mass. and Stop & Shop is owned by a Dutch conglomerate, Dave's is my favorite local supermarket and I go out of my way to shop there and support local business whenever I come back to visit RI. Their success is due to their customer service and great local and regional products- it's a model of how to run a business.

    RI businesses (and politicians) could find a lesson in this.

    Monday, July 25, 2016 Report this