Food shopping in Weston gets a bit tougher next week.
Peter’s Market — the only place in town for groceries both practical and gourmet, plus prepared, gluten-free and organic foods, and a salad bar — is closing. The last day of operation is Sunday (January 31).
Peter’s has been part of Weston Center since 1972. Previous markets occupied the site decades before that.
A few moments ago, owner Jim Magee posted this message on his website and social media:
We are saddened to announce to the public that Peter’s Weston Market will be closing its doors permanently at the end of the year. [NOTE: That should read “month.”]
Retailers, especially small businesses, have been struggling for the last 15 years and ours is no exception. Over the past 5 years our sales have declined 10% annually though expenses have increased. In addition, the complexities and declining in-store sales due to COVID-19 have dramatically hurt us. Because of all of this, remaining in business is no longer sustainable.
Peter’s Weston Market
After being in business for nearly 50 years, we want everyone to know we explored and exhausted every potential option to prevent this from happening. As a last-ditch effort we launched a GoFundMe page, appealing directly to our customers. Your loyalty and support was generous and overwhelming, allowing us to keep employees employed and continue to serve the community we love, including our regular donations to the Weston Food Pantry. We will be forever and eternally grateful for the support of the town and surrounding communities, especially of late. We simply cannot thank you enough.
In closing, please know the town of Weston and the people who live here have meant everything to us during the nearly 50 years we have been in business. We will miss our loyal customers, the energy in the store, the incredible number of young Westonites who have worked with us, and of course, our favorite Peter’s sandwiches. We hope that you will remember us kindly and be respectful of the impossibly difficult circumstances leading to our closing.
It’s been a great run! While we shed tears of pain right now, we also shed tears of joy for both all the friends we’ve made over the years and for the relief of the future. Thank you again for all of your support. We pray that you and your loved ones remain safe and healthy.
Warmest regards,
Jim Magee and the rest of your Peter’s Market family
PS: Come on in to get your favorite Peter’s sandwiches, rotisserie chickens, etc. through the weekend!
Say it isn’t so, Jim.
Though I did not live in Weston and probably only stopped at Peter’s a couple of times, (I’m guessing my Dad stopped there more often when he worked at the Weston PO), it is sad to here this. Sad for the owners and staff, sad for Westonites and others who passed thru and shopped there.
Odd that we mostly seem to love the small towns and villages, the little stores and shops that line their streets, and yet I guess many of us must pass by and shop with the big boys — Amazon, Walmart, Costco, BJs etc (personally I love Costco but can’t stand the other two), guilty as charged I suppose.
Thankfully we here in Bethel still have a “relatively” small town market, (Caraluzzii’s Bethel Food) which I enjoy shopping in but my thoughts go out to Peter’s Market and those loyal customers.
Truly sorry to see this. Before moving to Westport, for 8 years I lived a 4 minute drive from Peters. Always had great food to go and friendly service. Killer meat dept too. I can only imagine how many local high school kids worked there behind the registers over the years.
Very best to Jim and the staff in their new adventures and I’ll be sure to stop by this weekend.
Sad to hear this. We lived in Weston for 30 years and “Peter’s” was great for the town. Our youngest daughter worked there as a cashier when she was a student at Weston High School. The high rent was the villain as it has been for many of the small businesses in Westport, particularly those that were located on Main Street. I’ll be curious to see what replaces Peter’s, hopefully it will be a business that fits with the town and its unique character.
so sad!
Are we speaking of the same Peter’s Weston Market where I got my first job, in 1953, the year I was a senior at Staples High School? I and my friend, Glenn Smith (whose family lived at the end of Lord’s Highway — long before it was pushed through) were hired by Peter Vetromile himself. I don’t recall what the “wages” per hour were — probably not much more than a buck — but the job stacking the shelves included lunch. I agree with Ian’s comment, (above), about the deli: We got to make our own lunch sandwiches; my favorite was deli ham on wry, and I loaded them up on a Kaiser roll, along with the deli pickles. The job also included packing customers’ bags and carrying them out to their car . . . which often was rewarded by a monstrous tip of a buck. (Whoo-woo!)
Not that it is pertinent to Peter’s market, but Glenn’s mom, Viretta Hoskins Smith, was an illustrator, and contributed a fanciful mural on the wall up and behind the counter of the drug store (sic???). The las time I was in Weston, visiting from Portland, OR, the mural was gone, or painted over.
The other memory I carry is how we “you’t” (that is: Youth) would go to the gas station after it had closed. Very late at night we would lay the gas pump hoses on the pavement. Back then, the hoses did not have safety locks on them. If you drained each of the hoses into a jug, you could drive off with up to a gallon of gasoline.
My father, Carmelo Arcudi, always spoke well of Peter Vetromile, after whom the market was named.
Peters in Westin was a very special market – so sad to see it close !
Peters at peters bridge was another tragic happening several years ago !
I am so sad about this closing. When my husband and I first moved to the area we had a home in Weston in 1988. We shopped at Peters Market on a regular basis. Then we moved to Westport on the Weston border and continued to be regular customers. I know Jim personally, shared some ups and downs of life, and during Covid, Eric in the fish department took such amazing care of me! They had the best fish around and also the best Gluten Free Bakery for those of us with celiac!!! Many of the women who work the cash registers have been there for decades which says something very nice about Jim. I also know through a friend that he donated so much food to those in need. He’s a very beautiful person. We are very very sorry to see this long time establishment close and wish the very best to Jim, and to all who work there!
Fran Southworth
Truly sad to see……..but I am confused by one statement: he states that retailers have been struggling for many years and I most certainly do understand that when it comes to items like clothing and the many other things that are so easily bought online, but Peter’s had a “captive” audience
with Weston residents not only loving the market’s food and supplies over the years but its existence also saved Westonites and others nearby from having to drive into Westport. So isn’t the possibility of horrible mismanagement having occurred something to consider?
Absolutely. Good point.
Rent was spectacularly high. Grocery stores/markets have really tight margins. Instacart, Peapod and other delivery services have taken their toll. That’s the only commercial zoning in Weston, so they could not try for a new location. I can’t imagine a family that owned a business for nearly 50 years would “horribly mismanage” it.
The Magee family ran many places…Peter’s Bridge. Old Mill Deli among others.
If customers saved the Black Duck twice, why can’t customers save Peter’s???
From 1979-84 I never missed a Sunday driving to Peter’s Mkt for the Times, especially the magazine’s crossword. Fond and friendly memories.
Wow! Jimmy Magee…my wife is going to be very upset! Good luck to you and family!
This is a sad day. For us, Peter’s is irreplaceable, a perfect mix of a high quality market and small town charm. To Jimmy, Karen, Eric, Chris and all the other wonderful people who work there and who we see multiple times a week, thank you. You will truly be missed. And now off we go to hopefully stock up on at least six months worth of hot and sweet sausages!
Rosemary & Steve
I grew up in Weston. Peter’s Market was part of several businesses which made up the Weston Center which I believe was built by Peter Robinson in the late ’40s. Peter Robinson also built the house where my family lived at the end of Rogues Ridge Road, off Lord’s Highway. (And, yes, Mr. Wandres, we knew the Smiths — Phil, Viretta, Glen, and Gayle — who lived at the very end of Lord’s Highway.) Peter Robinson and his wife, Peggy, owned “The Center” for many years. Went to school with their kids, Carol, Sylvia, Chris, and Guy.
In those early days, the Weston Center included Peter’s Market and Peter’s Spirit Shop. Of course everybody knew Peter Vetromile, who ran the market, and his wife Helen, who was in charge of the Spirit Shop.
There was also the Weston Cleaners, run by Charlie Pokorney; the Weston Pharmacy, Bob’s Barber Shop, Jimmy Hogg’s real estate office (don’t remember the name); the Weston Service Station, run by Fred Falla; and the House of Wares, a hardware store run by the Taylor brothers, Phil and Paul. Incidentally, I think the Taylors were also involved with the building of our house.
Anyway, as a kid, I can remember playing with my sister on the grass circle surrounded by all these stores as my mother was inside Peter’s Market doing her grocery shopping. There was also a large fir tree in the middle of the green which was always lit up during the Christmas season. Nice memories, these; lots of stories, too.
I think Jimmy Hogg’s real estate office was called Camelot, or something close. Was the cleaners called Minute Men at one point? The hairdresser’s space became a luncheonette, and in the sixties Weston Pharmacy had a lunch counter. We lived on Ridge Road, off Norfield, for almost 40 years.
Wendy, it wasn’t Camelot — just can’t remember exactly what it was, but I’m sure it will come to me through the fog! Also, the cleaners was not Minute Men, at least in the ’50s & ’60s — again, can’t really remember. Not sure who the hairdresser was, but there was a branch of the Westport Bank & Trust to the right of the pharmacy which eventually morphed into a luncheonette, the Lunch Box.
Small matter of interest: the original pharmacy did have a lunch counter with a few tables. Cherry cokes and sodas after school! Behind the counter, there was a mural painted by the aforementioned Viretta Smith of Lord’s Highway. Her husband, Ralph Smith, was also an accomplished artist.
My father shopped at Peter’s for more than 60 years. He’s now gone, but Peters was where my parents did all their grocery shopping. It was also the Center of everything for me, as a 7th grader, that was within walking distance of Hurlbutt, – Weston’s Jr. High School.
Lady Jane — Do you remember when the Jr. High burned?
1963 the 5th and 6th grade school burned down. We went to the Temple Israel for 2 years.
So sad! Does anyone know where Rick from Great Cakes will go next? Miss him being in Westport!
The dwindling presence of locally owned businesses is a sad commentary on
our society and our communities.
I agree with Michael!…this is devastating news for our community. The initiative that we are working on called “Save Local” is a great start to help small, local businesses like Peter’s Market and so many others…visit our instagram page @savelocalwestport to follow and support our important mission! Details coming soon…
First we lost their Westport store – Peter’s Bridge Market which was a big loss! Now this. It makes me profoundly sad…
I just wanted to remind our beautiful community that Jim Magee will be looking for work. I have known him since 1988 and can say that he is a hard-working, honest, kind and generous person that any company would be lucky to have as an employee.
So many nice memories here..:-)
I remember my mom parking our station wagon in front of Peter’s,(,this was back in the early 1960’s..days when kids waited in the car while their moms did the grocery shopping at Peter’s Market) It was nice because we’d always then see our friends from school, sitting in their cars, waiting for their moms, at Peters’,too. 🙂
So sad to hear that Peter’s is closing. Is there any news if Rick and his “Great Cakes” bakery will find a new home. Birthdays will never be the same!
In the works ….
I never thought I would see the day Peter’s Market would close. My father Steve Foreman bought Peter’s Market with Jim’s father from Peter Vetromile in 1972 and my father sold his interest when he retired in 1998 to Jim. I like, Jim and Karen Magee, worked at Peter’s during High School and college Many happy memories. I wish Jim and Karen well. A truly sad day.