Buyers’ Regret : Faithful Shoppers Don’t Like What’s in Store for Market

With its sunny-colored ‘60s decor and low-tech cash registers, the Leisure Market is a funky and friendly neighborhood institution catering to the special needs and tastes of elderly people from nearby Leisure World.

So residents of the Seal Beach retirement community are reacting with sadness and anger after learning that the store will close at the end of April.

Although somebody else will operate the market after it is renovated, many longtime customers are already mourning the store’s passing and doubt that it will ever be the same again.

“It reminds me of the way stores used to be,” said Leisure World resident Rita Hammer, using her metal cane to examine Passover goods from the market’s large kosher section.

“I hope it will be the same,” she added. “But I doubt it. . . . This is the ending of one era.”

Now, many loyal patrons wonder where they will turn to find those items unique to Leisure Market, like five varieties of borscht (including diet and salt-free), stacks of colorful knitting yarn and oat bran galore.

Frail seniors are most concerned over the closure. They have long relied on the wide aisles and courteous employees who help them maneuver their walkers, wheelchairs and electric carts through the market.

“A lot of people are upset over this,” said Leisure World resident Eugene Dilts, who for a decade has frequented the market, located in a shopping center just outside the gated community. “There are a lot of old people with walkers who don’t drive. This is a very important place for them.”

Frail seniors are most concerned over the closure. They have long relied on the wide aisles and courteous employees who help them maneuver their walkers, wheelchairs and electric carts through the market.

“A lot of people are upset over this,” said Leisure World resident Eugene Dilts, who for a decade has frequented the market, located in a shopping center just outside the gated community. “There are a lot of old people with walkers who don’t drive. This is a very important place for them.”

For Dilts and others, dismay over the old store’s demise is tinged with bitterness about how it happened.

The market is closing not because of sagging sales but because the shopping center owner decided not the renew its lease. As a result, Bong Lee, who has run the store since 1980, must vacate the premises by month’s end, said longtime store manager Bill Sutherland.

Many residents criticized the center owner, Frank H. Ayers & Son, for letting the lease go.

“I don’t understand how this could happen. (The property owner) has been making money for 30 years from Leisure World residents and now they turn and jab us back,” said Seal Beach City Councilman William J. Doane. “It’s a kick in the pants for the people who made (the shopping center) prosper.”

The new market owner, Pacific Food Services of Rancho Cucamonga, will take over in May.

Craig Dootson, manager of the shopping center, declined to discuss specifics of the lease but said Pacific Food Services was the “best choice” to run the market.

Dootson said the new owners will be committed to serving elderly shoppers. “They intend to provide better service to Leisure World residents,” he said. “In the long run, the market will be much improved.”

The first improvement, Dootson said, will be modernizing the store.

“They’re going to remodel inside and outside,” Dootson said. “Every market should be remodeled every 10 to 15 years. This market is overdue.”

But to many longtime shoppers, the dated look of Leisure Market is one of its most endearing charms.

Although the market changed hands 13 years ago, the interior retains a decidedly 1960s flavor, with its Formica counter and bright colors. There are no computerized check-out scanners here, where employees still punch each price into cash registers one item at a time.

This nostalgic atmosphere extends to the merchandise. Manager Sutherland proudly pointed out that the store still stocks such items as dry cornstarch for clothing and an array of dietary foods, low-salt items and kosher goods that are hard to find at many supermarkets.

The market boasts a mini smoke shop with more than 50 varieties of cigars and pipe tobacco, with names like London Aire and Santa Fe Fairmonts.

Leisure Market also carries “junior” sizes of many products, which come in handy for seniors who cook for one.

“I always find what I need here,” Hammer said.

While the store is closed for remodeling, Leisure World residents will be forced to travel more than a mile to shop at the nearest supermarket.

Shoppers who use wheelchairs and walkers aren’t enthusiastic about shopping at an unfamiliar store full of strangers. Others doubt that they will be able to find all the products they are used to.

“Some of these people have shopped here for so long that they might get lost in another market,” Hammer said.

Many shoppers vowed to give the new market a try before passing final judgment. Dootson insisted that they will find a modern market that still strives to meet seniors’ needs.

“I think the residents of Leisure World will be happy,” Dootson said.

But others aren’t convinced, at least not yet.

“I like this just the way it is,” said shopper Melvin Lewis of Long Beach. “I don’t see a need for it to change.”