They may doze … but they never rest on their laurels
By Lorne Chambers | Editor
Open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, Bert’s Market on Folly Beach literally never locks its doors. In fact, last month during the massive renovations to the island’s grocery store, the glass front doors were completely taken off for an extended period of time as new shelving, coolers, and other repairs and renovations were made.
“We may doze, but we never close” has been the motto of Bert’s Market pretty much since Bert Hasting’s first opened the store in 1993, taking over Chris & Jerry’s Convenient Store on the corner of East Ashley Avenue and Second Street. But that doesn’t mean that the iconic beach market is resting (or dozing) on its laurels. Quite the opposite, in fact.
About a year ago, Bert’s added The Wooden Spoon, a full-service deli and sandwich shop right inside the store, offering patrons fresh-made sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, and desserts. Before that, it added a five-tap growler station, where you can fill or refill 64-ounces bottles of various rotating craft beers on tap. And before that even, a small cooler was added so beachgoers could buy fresh sushi and other organic specialty products.
When the Piggly Wiggly on Folly Road closed, local resident Susan Breslin suggested that Bert’s get the store’s fresh peanut butter grinder. So for the last year or so, Bert’s has offered fresh-ground peanut butter in addition to in-house, cold-pressed olive oil, and house-ground coffees. But last month Bert’s underwent its most extensive renovation since a serious fire ripped through the beloved island market in 2004.
“It’s always a work-in-progress,” says Bert’s current owner Omar Colon, who is married to the daughter of the store’s namesake who face is immortalized in a mural along the store’s wall facing Second Street. And over the last two months Folly’s grocery store and defacto meeting spot has been a major “work-in-progress,” with some serious renovations and upgrades taking place.
For those who haven’t been inside Bert’s recently (if that’s possible), you will immediately notice some big differences. For one, the store’s layout has completely changed. Locals, whose Bert’s muscle memory pulls them left to get eggs in the morning, will quickly run into the new beer cave at the west end of the store. There’s now a door to the cooler, where customers can enter the large walk-in cooler and select a wide variety of brews in all styles, quantities, and price ranges.
But where are the eggs? They’re now on the opposite end of the store in a new open-air cooler, allowing for a lot more fresh produce, a larger dairy selection, and more fresh meat options, including steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts and quarters, and even local, grass-fed ground beef.
“I was never really happy to have our produce tucked into that one smaller cooler,” says Colon, who has also added a new round, island cooler in the center of the store that includes a full olive bar, with everything from olives and stuffed fig leaves to house-made hummus and salsa, as well as a large selection of cheeses from around the world. Bert’s also has added bulk food bins, offering nuts and candies by the ounce.
But perhaps the most obvious change when you walk in is the shelving, which now stretches nearly to the ceiling. “We chose to go up with the shelving because we had all this untapped space,” says Colon.
Long before there was a Piggly Wiggly on Folly Road, Bert’s was the go-to store for Folly locals and tourists. When Piggly Wiggly switched over to Harris Teeter, Bert’s was still there, giving folks what they want and listening to what the locals want. “A lot of our new stuff comes from the needs of the locals,” says Colon. “That’s the experience we want.”
With all the upgrades to Bert’s, people will now have less of a need to ever leave the island to get groceries. And that’s just fine with Colon, who points out that Bert’s has always been much more than a convenience store. “It’s always been classified as a ‘grocery store.’ And now it truly is one,” he says.
While Bert’s Market is always evolving, there are a couple things that will always remain the same. “Aside from the constant changes, we always seek to maintain a certain level of customer service,” says Colon. Oh yeah, and coffee is still always complimentary.
Bert’s Market is located at 202 E Ashley Ave. For more information, call (843) 588-9449 or visit www.bertsmarket.com.
