Dear Editor,
The Shopper readers everywhere will join me in my grief: on the last day of 2020, that very troubled year, North Walpole’s Discount Food Warehouse closed its doors for good. The store has fed the hungry and delighted area bargain-hunters for some 20 years – or at least that’s how long I’ve been shopping there.
For many apple seasons, I was a proud member of the picking crew at Russell Allen’s Connecticut Valley Orchard in Westminister. The crew had a tradition of leaving the orchard a little early every Tuesday in order to get to the “Excitement Store” before closing time. We called it that because we’d never know what exciting thing we were going to find there: jars of spicy Indian mango pickle? a 20-pound bag of goji berries? purple Peruvian parching corn, on the cob? Having exchanged commentaries and compared notes with fellow shoppers and checkout people alike about what was particularly exciting this week, what was stale and what wasn’t, what was worth stocking up on, we’d gather our purchases and wander back across the river for a picnic potluck on the lawn of the Rockingham Free Public Library. Canned soup direct from the can, old crackers, out-of-date sardines, weird chips – paired with fine Italian mineral water or blood-orange soda and high-end organic butter cookies. Those were the days. Afterwards we’d peruse the library’s stacks till they closed at 7 p.m. and the long-suffering staff gently shooed us out, at which point we’d saunter happily down into the Square as the Opera House bell tolled, buy our tickets – two dollars, was it, really? – and settle in for the discount-night movie, no matter what was playing. This last was one of the crew’s more firmly held unofficial commitments.
I know we weren’t the only people whose lives revolved in one way or another around the Discount Food Warehouse. The big red heart on the sign said it all.
The store had been owned and operated for some years by Mr. G’s, which continues to do business directly across Route 5. I hope and trust that the modest backroom that comprises the food section at Mr. G’s North Walpole location will now be expanded and improved in an attempt to at least partially fill the hole left in the social fabric of the village by the closure across the street. I find it promising that they’ve announced intentions to start accepting EBT at the Mr. G’s store; this had long been the practice at the Excitement Store.
With many thanks to all the shelf-stockers and checkout-people over the years, who seemed to be as entertained by the continually shifting contents of their store as I was, I close, and look forward to reading other people’s Discount Food Warehouse reminiscences in these pages in coming weeks. Such an institution need not pass from us unmourned.
Sincerely,
Ian Ludders
Quaker City, N.H.