St. Charles Butera store to close by Nov. 1

ST. CHARLES – The St. Charles location of a family-owned supermarket chain will close its doors by Nov. 1., the store’s manager said Saturday. Butera Market at 2732 E. Main St. in St. Charles has signs on its front doors announcing the closing without a specific date and with the message, “Thank you for your past patronage.”

The store also reduced its hours on Oct. 22 and will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day until it closes for business.

“We might do a half-day on [Nov. 1]; that’d be the latest we’d be open,” store manager Dave Peterson said. “Everything in the building is 20 [percent] to 40 percent off and dwindling quickly.”

Peterson said the St. Charles Butera is the only store out of Butera’s current 10 locations that will close for business. He referred further questions to Butera’s corporate office, which he said would be open on Monday. A phone message left Saturday at the office was not returned by Monday afternoon.

Several customers of the St. Charles location in late September reported hearing about a Nov. 1 closing date at the store, but Butera Market President Joseph Butera would not confirm the closure in a Sept. 30 phone interview.

The store in September began an inventory reduction sale with select items starting at 20 percent off. Since the sale went storewide, items such as cigarettes have sold out, Peterson said.

St. Charles resident Connie Stadler, who shopped at the store on Saturday, said she usually goes there twice a month. She said the store carries some good deals but appears to have changed since it first opened in March 2004.

“It’s time,” Stadler said of the store closure.

When any store location is closed, it’s always the company’s plan to offer employees a chance to transfer to the other locations, Butera said during the September phone interview.

Butera said by year’s end the company will open a store at 20 Tyler Creek Plaza in Elgin, giving that city its second Butera location.