Ray's chain to acquire Walterville grocery.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

WALTERVILLE - An 81-year family tradition will end here next month.

Brothers Jerry and Larry Swartz will sell their Swartz Brothers Select Market on June 1 to C&K Market, Inc., the parent company of Ray's Food Place.

Ray's, a Brookings-based chain of 47 supermarkets in Oregon and Northern California, will then remodel and expand the store to about double its current 10,000 square feet.

"Honestly, the store needs to be enlarged, remodeled and fully stocked; I just don't have the money to spend on it," says Jerry Swartz, who will stay on as store manager after the sale.

"It's time for some new, fresh ideas," he says.

The Swartz brothers' great uncle, Harold Swartz, got the family started in grocery ownership when he founded what would become a local chain of Irish & Swartz markets. Store sites included buildings that are currently Gray's Garden Center on West Sixth Avenue, Capella Market on South Willamette Street and Market of Choice on Franklin Boulevard.

"The first one was in 1925, and they went all the way into the 1960s," Swartz says. "Somebody in our family has been selling groceries somewhere in Lane County since (the first Irish & Swartz opened)."

Del Swartz - Jerry's and Larry's father - opened his own Swartz Grocery in Mapleton during the 1940s, and operated it for 22 years.

Then Jerry and Larry Swartz purchased Eugene's Hilyard Street Market in 1977. They later sold it and purchased their Walterville store in 1991.

"I've worked at 20 grocery stores in my life, since I was 15," Jerry Swartz says. "It's what I like to do, obviously."

He's ready to let someone else worry about the bottom line, though, and says it was not a hard decision to sell the store.

"It's not at all, actually, because I'll get to stay at the store," Swartz says. "I know the first names of half the people that walk in here, anyway."

His brother began a career several years ago with Oregon Community Credit Union, but has retained an ownership share in the Walterville market.

The Ray's chain has a history that parallels that of the Swartz family - it began in 1957, when Raymond Nidiffer bought a half-interest in the C&K Market of Brookings. He bought the other half in 1969, and has since built a supermarket chain - now run by his son, Doug - that has carved a niche primarily among the region's small towns.

Greg Sandeno, director of operations for Ray's Food Place, says the Walterville store presents a good opportunity for the chain.

"That kind of connects the dots for us out there," Sandeno says, noting that the company has a store in Veneta, just west of Eugene, and is building another just north of town in the Santa Clara area.

"So (Walterville) was a nice fit for the company," he says. "We're excited to be part of that community, and to just kind of carry on what the Swartz family has started."

Terms of the sale were not disclosed, and Sandeno says it has not yet been determined how much will be spent on the remodeling and expansion. The building is owned by Jeffrey and Randall Christian, and will be leased to Ray's.

No construction timetable has been set, but work is under way on plans for the store.

"I guess I would say we'll start just as soon as feasible, once the (sale) transaction is complete," he says.

The Swartz brothers last remodeled the store about eight years ago, so Jerry Swartz knows what to expect during the project.

"It gets pretty loud and pretty dusty, but you stay open," he says.