Stores put on community appreciation event

ALBANY — In the wake of the Harvey’s grocery store closing on West Gordon Avenue, local businesses held a customer appreciation event in the South Slappey Village Shopping Center Tuesday. Children enjoyed food, face painting and playing with a “snow” machine while community leader Yaz Johnson updated parent on the status of a replacement grocery store.

Johnson, a pastor, said he has been in contact with JP Properties — the Alpharetta-based company that owns the South Slappey shopping center — and officials are working to bring in another store.

“We are actually negotiating with JP Properties, trying to get somebody in that grocery store,” Johnson said. “This Harvey’s was a big pillar in this community. It’d been here for 30 years or better. … There is a grocery store chain that is very, very, very interested in coming into the store in this location.”

Johnson said that part of the reason bringing in a new store is challenging is because it requires Harvey’s cooperation.

“We need their full cooperation as it relates to making a smooth transition,” Johnson said. “Because if you look at all the other grocery stores that Harvey’s left here in Albany, a grocery store did not come up behind them because the transaction was difficult.

“What happened is, when Harvey’s left the other locations, they took all the equipment out versus at least selling it to somebody else that could open up a grocery store. If you have a grocery store that’s interested in coming and you have this big building, it costs millions of dollars to go back in and put all those freezers in and this, that and the other. It seems like it’d be easier just to make an offer to sell it, and sell it so that we can keep the heart pumping.”

Shianna Scruggs, the office manager for Vital Smiles of Albany, explained what the appreciation event meant for the event’s sponsors.

“We just wanted to kind of show that we support them, show our customers that we appreciate them,” Scruggs said. “We know it’s been difficult for a lot of people since the Harvey’s left. We have a lot of patients that walked to this plaza, so it was just really important for us to let them know that we’re still here and really still supporting them.

“That’s what we came out for today.”

The office manager added that local health care providers signed residents up for plans, Crescent Cellphone & Computer offered free cell phones to qualified users and there was a community outreach specialist available who told people how to utilize resources to continue recovery from Hurricane Michael.