Andy's Closes Its Doors After 33 Years

The shelves were all but empty at Andy's Market on Monday after the store's final week of clearance. The local market closed its doors for the last time on Saturday.

Store co-owner Andy Andreo Jr. said closing the doors to his family's 33-year business was bittersweet. A struggling economy and increased competition were among the factors that led to the decision to close store.

Andreo ran the family business with his brother John Andreo and has entered the familiar storefront almost daily since it opened its doors in 1979. The owners announced the decision to close the business earlier this year.

"Today's the first day I haven't been in business in Simsbury for 33 years," Andreo said. "It's still a bit of a shell-shock, it's going to take a while to get used to."

While Andreo is still coming to work everyday, he's looking forward to focusing on the family's real estate business. In the meantime he continues to sell off what little merchandise is left in the store.

"We cleaned out extremely well, once we ran the percentage-off sales people took full advantage of the discounts," Andreo said.

Andreo said there has been interest in the 28,000-square-foot space for use as retail space, office space, and even a church annex but no decisions have been made. He hopes to find a tenant for the space as soon as possible but will wait for the right opportunity.

"I don't anticipate it's going to happen right away, it might take some time," Andreo said.

While he doesn't expect to miss the stresses of running a supermarket in a difficult economy, Andreo said he would miss the community his family's business served over the years.

"It's a great community and they gave us a lot of support," Andreo said. "They enabled us to stay open as long as we did."