A notice on the store’s front door, below, gave no indication of the reason for the closing. (Photos by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
This post has been updated since it was originally published.
By BRIAN DONOHUE and JOHN T. WARD
Sickles Market in Little Silver closed Monday, shocking customers of the grocer that began life as a farm market 116 years ago.
The shutdown comes less than four weeks after the family-owned business abruptly pulled the plug on its only other location, in Red Bank, after a three-year stay.
A view through the window of the store’s interior Monday evening. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
No public notice of the closing was made on Monday evening, other than a note taped to the store’s front door. “So sorry. We are closed,” it read. “Further updates will be shared soon. Have a nice day.”
Owner Bob Sickles Jr. and his daughter, Tori, who ran the marketing of the business, did not immediately respond to a redbankgreen request for information.
A layoff notice to employees, dated Monday, said that, “on account of challenging business conditions,” Sickles “made the difficult decision to close its operations.” All employees were laid off effective Monday, said the notice, signed by Bob Sickles Jr.
“All active operations of the Little Silver location [will] be closed until further notice,” it said. “The Market hopes to re-open but at this time, Market management is unsure of whether or when the Market will be able to re-open.”
The closing caught would-be customers off guard. On Sunday, the business was still touting lunch specials on its Facebook page.
“They’re not closed. They can’t be,” said Steve Carvalho, of Fair Haven, who had come to the market to shop. “I can’t imagine.”
On February 15, Sickles Market suddenly closed its store in the Anderson Building, a circa-1909 Red Bank warehouse that had been vacant for at least 25 years before it was refurbished by local retailer developer Metrovation.
The market served as an anchor for the building.
Metrovation has since sued the market for more than $200,000 in unpaid rent, redbankgreen has confirmed in court documents.
A Booskerdoo coffee kiosk within the 9,000-square-foot Red Bank space has continued operating, and its owners, James and Amelia Caverly, planned to open another coffee station within the Little Silver Sickles Market, they said last month.
The store’s one-acre market property and 5.5-acre farm have agricultural roots extend back to 1663. The market has been operation since 1908, most recently run by third- and fourth-generation members Bob Sickles Jr. and his daughter, Tori.
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