NORTHAMPTON — The operators of Serio’s Market, a landmark downtown business founded more than a century ago, say they’re fighting to keep the doors open in the face of mounting debt.
One of those debts came to the forefront last week when one of the store’s wholesale suppliers filed a lawsuit against the business seeking tens of thousands of dollars in late payments.
Attorneys for Bozzuto’s Inc., which bills itself as a wholesale provider based out of Chesire, Connecticut, filed the suit in Hampshire Superior Court on Nov. 10 alleging Bozzuto’s is owed more than $32,000.
Serio’s General Manager Jaimie Golec said Monday that the lawsuit is just the tip of the iceberg for what is believed to be the longest continuously run, family-owned business in Northampton.
“To be clear … Bozzuto’s isn’t the only one we owe money to,” Golec said, adding that the shop’s electric bill averages each month between $3,000 and $4,000, which they also are struggling to keep up to date. “That’s enough to put me out of business right there,” Golec added.
The suit states that, between Jan. 11 and Oct. 16, Bozzuto’s sold and delivered weekly shipments of various goods to Serio’s, totaling $32,349.40, plus unspecified interest and attorney’s fees. Now the group is suing the mom-and-pop store founded in 1902 for what it says is owed.
Attorneys for Bozzuto’s, Robert Girvan and Gary Weiner, of Weiner Law Firm in Springfield, did not return a call for comment Monday.
Golec and her father, Gary, who owns the business, said they don’t place any blame on the provider for pursuing legal action, but that they hope the matter can be resolved short of a trial.
Management said it tried to negotiate last week with Bozzuto’s attorneys to set up a payment plan in which the store would offer $100 a month. The offer, they said, was rejected.
The last payment made to Bozzuto’s, totaling $200, was in September, Jaimie Golec said. Bozzuto’s is also no longer making deliveries to Serio’s.
The father-daughter duo also cited a positive working relationship with Bozzuto’s leading up to this point. But it doesn’t make the circumstances any easier to digest, they said.
“Not enough people coming in the door to spend money,” Gary Golec said. “That’s it — if we were making money, we’d be paying the bills off. We wouldn’t even be in this situation. Most of the residents of this city have forgotten about us as a grocery store.”
Jaimie Golec added, “It’s inconvenient. It’s more convenient for a person to do a one-stop shop at Stop and Shop and get everything they need.”
She said the bulk of Serio’s troubles started when its previous manager, Christina Cavallari, died unexpectedly in 2014. Jaimie said that, while she holds no ill will toward her stepmother, Cavallari was “completely overwhelmed” when it came to running the store.
“I slowly started uncovering things,” Jaimie said, conceding that, for about 10 years, Cavallari did not file paperwork for corporate taxes.
“(The business) was not organized in such a way that made it convenient to record keep,” she added.
As far as steps being considered by management to lift the business out of its dire financial straits, Jaimie Golec said she has tried to trim costs in ways that don’t necessarily have an immediate effect on the products offered in the store.
“We’ve cut our payroll way, way down,” she said. “We run with bare-bones pretty much … (we’re also) looking for investment help, thinking that if we get a little bit of backing and have some operational capital in the business, we can actually do some renovations and some things to really better what we do well — like expand our kitchen … but again, those things cost money.”
In the meantime, it’s the community charm, the operators said, they are hoping continues to draw customers to their store.
“You come in here, and you have interactions with the employees who know your name, and they ask you what’s going on and you see other community members,” Jaimie Golec said. “And you know the cashiers, and you know the butchers, and you know the cook, and you know everybody. There’s a lot to be said for that because it’s customer service that you just don’t find anymore, frankly.”
Jaimie Golec said she and her family have talked seriously about the prospect of declaring bankruptcy if the store is unable to overcome its debt burden. Though it’s not inevitable, she said, it remains “on the table.”
“If they get reasonable, and start to play a little bit of hardball with us,” she said, “we’re willing to start to pay down that debt.”
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.