After 94 years serving St. Charles, the venerable Blue Goose Market will shut its doors for good this coming Sunday.
Paul Lencioni, who has run the market for almost 10 years, had announced the closing in early February.
Since the announcement, Lencioni has shown a brave face, emphasizing his pride in what the market has contributed to St. Charles for nearly a century and focusing on the future.
This last Sunday, Lencioni continued to emphasize that optimism by posting video on the market’s Facebook page from brunch at St. Charles’ The Graceful Ordinary, telling St. Charles “just wait until you see what we accomplish.”
Lencioni’s great grandmother Annunciata — known as Nancy — opened the Blue Goose Fruit Store in the 200 block of St. Charles’ West Main St. in 1928. It survived the Great Depression and food rationing in World War II, expanding to include a meat market in 1946.
In 1995 it undertook at $2.3 million renovation project, which included adding a bakery.
The store has struggled in recent years, however. In July of 2019, Lencioni made a public plea to customers to keep the store open, an effort that appeared to have succeeded. Then came COVID in early 2020, which threw the operation into a frenzy, adopting online ordering, scouring suppliers for out-of-stock items like toilet paper, and just generally having to adapt to what was effectively a “black swan” event.
Since the announcement, the store has been offering deep discounts on most items and hosting what were effectively “say goodbye” events.
What comes next, for both the property and Lencioni himself, remains unknown. But regardless, Sunday will be a sad day in the history of St. Charles.
