DATE: Saturday, November 8, 1997            TAG: 9711080351

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  104 lines

OLD-FASHIONED SUCCESS BAZEMORE'S USES SMALL-TOWN CHARM TO COMPETE WITH THE BIG CHAINS

John Goodman watched as Julie Hull stacked cans, boxes and bottles in a grocery cart at Bazemore's Friendly Market one recent rainy day, her under-the-weather 5-year-old, William, draped over a shoulder.

Goodman, 68, a part-time baker and delivery man for the corner store at Hampton Boulevard and Lexan Avenue in Larchmont, remembered when Julie Perry skipped up and down the aisles when visiting the market with her own parents.

Goodman has worked at Bazemore's for 37 years, and Hull is just one of many market regulars he has watched grow into adulthood.

His memories symbolize a business that its owners and manager say is reaping the rewards of being downright old-fashioned by putting customer service first.

Bagged dinners-for-two, some locally grown and produced foods and catering are the mainstays of customer service the market touts.

In just a little more than a year since it reopened under new ownership and management, Bazemore's Friendly Market is about to break even, according to its owners, Margaret Falkiner and her husband, Charles.

The Falkiners declined to provide sales figures. But if the market is doing as well as its owners profess - especially in the short time they have had the business - it is bucking a national trend.

According to Supermarket News, a national trade periodical, independent grocers lost ground to the big chains between 1992 and 1996, dropping from 21.4 percent to 16.8 percent of sales.

Though their numbers have declined, the mom-and-pop markets that put customer service first and treat clientele with ``TLC'' will survive and thrive, predicted David Callahan, editor of Food World, a trade publication that covers the mid-Atlantic region.

``There are some excellent grocers out there that have found ways to compete with the chains,'' Callahan said. ``Customer service, all the extras.''

Falkiner credits manager Donna Venable with having a good head for business and for knowing how to please customers.

Venable, who became manager about a year ago, says customer service of the old-fashioned kind is the secret of the market's success.

``We would cook and deliver a hot dog'' to a customer if asked, she said. In fact, they were - and did - recently for an elderly customer.

She said that Goodman and the store's two other delivery men are kept busy making free deliveries to customers.

Dozens of regulars have come to depend on Bazemore's to select and deliver their groceries on days when they just don't have time to shop, Venable said. Eight percent of Bazemore's business is delivery, she said.

Venable, who has managed chain groceries, credits Bazemore's success to health insurance paid in full by the company and paid holidays - benefits that help attract employees who will stay with the company. That makes for workers who care about pleasing customers.

At a time when more and more companies are hiring part-time employees to avoid the overhead of benefits, the owners of Bazemore's prefer full-time workers. ``We're using people instead of computers'' to boost business, says Venable.

Bazemore's is the only survivor of four independent groceries that once thrived in a 20-block stretch of Hampton Boulevard. T.N. Bazemore opened the market in the 1950s. Over the ensuing decades, four other people owned and operated the store. It closed in early 1995, and the Falkiners purchased and renovated it a year ago last summer.

The Falkiners, who live in Larchmont, just couldn't stand having their neighborhood store closed.

``I felt like there had been a death in the family,'' said Margaret Falkiner. Now retired, she was a Norfolk journalist and, with her husband, owned an Australian newspaper. She says that she and her husband know nothing about food retailing.

The Falkiners invested about $200,000 to renovate the interior of the corner market. Focal point of the redecorated store is a skylight that gives the relatively small space - 3,700 square feet of sales floor - a spacious feel. They say they plan an addition to enlarge the delicatessen and widen aisles.

Each week, about 3,000 customers come through Bazemore's doors, according to Venable.

The chain stores several miles distant are no competition for the new Bazemore's. Their impersonality doesn't lend itself to focusing on individual customers, says Venable. That's where the independent market has an edge on the food chains, she says.

You finding everything?'' Venable asks shopper Fred Cady. Judging by the items he's accumulated, he is, and so is son Alexander, who's busy tipping three-packs of juice boxes over the side of the cart.

Jim LaMay sorted through a bin of big oranges, selecting six of the best.

``This is one of the few places in town I can find these,'' said the Larchmont resident.

Bazemore's is also a social venue for the neighborhood, holding wine and cheese tastings every Friday at 4 p.m. It's open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. seven days a week, closing only on Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter.

Shopper Julie Hull leaned back to adjust son William's weight on her shoulder and read the label on a can of beans. She then found words for how Bazemore's makes her feel as the odor of fresh-baked bread spread through the store.

``It's kind of homey, quick and easy, and the food's good,'' she said.

After she had checked out, John Goodman ignored the rain to help the young mother put groceries in her car. He smiled and waved as she drove off. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS

RICHARD L. DUNSTON

The Virginian-Pilot

Natalie McGowen, Julie Hull, William Hull...

Donna Venable and John Goodman...

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