Time Is Running Out for Acords

The fact that Acords Market soon will be closing, replaced by a trendy Wild Oats Community Market, is stirring emotions like those when a best friend moves away.

In fact, loyal customers say that losing Acords will be like bidding farewell to a store full of friends: the cashier who doesn’t ask for identification when you cash a check, the butcher who shares your passion for football, the neighbor in the produce department who asks about your family.

A Laguna Beach fixture since the 1930s, the popular independent grocery store has a core of supporters who say they have collected at least 2,000 signatures from residents opposing the move.

“Save Acords” bumper stickers have popped up all over town, but to no avail. City Council members say they can do nothing because the property owner has decided not to renew Acords’ lease on its location at 283 Broadway.

Catherine Schubert, 87, said she takes a bus from the south end of town to get to Acords.

“I’ve lived in Laguna for 20-some years, and I’ve always bought in here,” she said.

Though officials of the Wild Oats chain, based in Boulder, Colo., have promised to do whatever they can to fit in with the village ambience of Laguna Beach, a band of residents has filed a lawsuit against the city, saying it is not doing enough to keep chain stores from taking over.

City leaders say that development plans for the downtown area do not prohibit chain stores, however, and that there is little they can do to interfere with Wild Oats’ plans to open here as soon as March.

Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said he doesn’t think the chain store concept itself is what is stirring residents’ ire.

“The problem is, people don’t like change,” he said. “Change is scary to people, and any time anything changes, it’s viewed as bad.

“It wasn’t [Acords] so much as the idea of it being here for a long time, and the employees,” he said. “People knew people there. . . . They’d ask about your friends and family.”

But Jessika Brittin, 28, an Acords checker whose family has shopped at the store for years, sees it differently.

“They’re not losing a store, they’re losing a large part of our tradition,” said Brittin, whose mother is one of the residents suing the city.

The market’s community spirit was evident on a recent afternoon. A Chamber of Commerce get-together was in progress in the parking lot, and community groups were selling popcorn and hot cider. Inside, a banner reminded shoppers that it’s time to buy their holiday turkeys.

To think of losing that service hurts, said Teresa Piaskowski, 31, a former Laguna Beach resident who has since moved to Laguna Niguel but returns to Acords regularly for grocery shopping.

“I remember sitting in the car while [my mother] ran in here,” Piaskowski said. “It’s really painful.”