A short-staffed Cronig’s Market reopened to the public Thursday morning after a coronavirus case cluster among employees caused the Island grocery store to close Friday afternoon of last week.
Cronig’s Market will remain shuttered until at least Thursday, after a cluster of ten cases have now been identified in store employees, owner Steve Bernier said Monday.
Cronig’s Market closed its doors for the weekend at 3 p.m. on Friday and will remain shuttered until Monday morning at 7 a.m. after three employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Branimira (Bianca) Milkova is a cashier at Cronig’s.
Ms. Milkova is from Bulgaria and has worked at Cronig’s for about 10 years. Usually, she is a fixture at the up-Island store in West Tisbury but when that store shut down last month to consolidate the business during the pandemic she started working at the Vineyard Haven store.
“It’s different there,” she said. “At up-Island it feels like a family with my regular customers.”
Cronig’s Market will be closed on Sundays until further notice, owner Steve Bernier said today. The store is not staffed for delivery or curbside pickup.
Cronig’s Market will withdraw from the popular Island Club discount program, touching off a stir of conversation on social media and in grocery aisles.
The Cronig brothers are expanding again. Robert and David Cronig, who inherited their father’s grocery business in Vineyard Haven’s center in 1956, have enlarged their Main street market twice. And now they are building an even larger market outside of town on State Road.
