Cronig Bros. have acquired a grocery store on wheels, a Reo truck with a large and impressive body painted brown and housing a store of no mean dimensions. If you meet it on the road you are likely to mistake it for one of the houses which are always hunting new homes on the Vineyard.
Cronig Brothers Market, Vineyard Haven, entering upon its thrity-ninth year, now becomes Cronig Brothers, Inc., with the active management passing officially into the hands of the second generation, namely two of the sons of the senior partner, S. David and Robert Cronig, who have worked with and for their father, Samuel, for years.
On any given day the owner of Cronig’s Markets can be found sweeping the parking lot of his stores, pulling bull briar and poison ivy at Thimble Farm or expanding his myriad evolving business interests. Steve Bernier says at heart he is just an old-fashioned entrepreneur.
Just a few weeks ago, Vineyard transit officials decided the North Tisbury business district would be the perfect place to relocate their bus transfer hub and put an end to all those complaints about buses ruining the historic character of West Tisbury village. All they needed was a good-sized patch of blacktop in the business district.
Starting soon, Cronig's markets will offer an eco-friendly bagging alternative at the check-out counter: polypropylene shopping bags.
Cronig's bought 5,000 of the bags from 1 Bag at a Time, a company started last year by Aquinnah summer resident Lisa Foster.
"We're hoping that eventually we'll be using less of the paper bags," Cronig's general manager Sarah McKay said. "That will be cost saving for us, but also refuse saving for the Island - less will be ending up at the recycling center or the dump."
Coming from Steve Bernier, owner of Cronig’s Market, the answer is part career grocer’s insider view, part disaster warning.
“There’s a flood coming,” said Mr. Bernier, sitting in a cocoon-like office space above the Cronig’s main store in Vineyard Haven. “The rise now is exponential, dynamic. We’re at the end game of what goes around comes around.”
While building a new deli section in their Vineyard Haven store, Cronig’s Market also has shifted to more biodegradable and compostable items made from corn and bulrush. The gocery store already shifted to different packaging for its meat products; now a new line from Vineyard Haven retailer Eco MV means changes to Cronig’s soup cups, cutlery, unbleached deli sheets, to-go containers, and various other packaging containers for the deli and salad bar.
The old-fashioned practice of allowing some customers to hold house accounts at Cronig’s Market will be getting a high-tech twist in the coming weeks, as customers will have to use a fingerprint identification system in order to access their accounts.
The grocery store offers house accounts as a courtesy to certain customers, and up until recently the practice caused few problems or disruptions.
To reduce its environmental impact, Cronig’s Market has teamed up with Eco MV to replace all its styrofoam packaging. Styrofoam is a byproduct of petroleum and has a landfill life of over 3,000 years, and while it has been touted as a light and well-insulating material, more sustainable alternatives abound. For Cronig’s Market, the more environmentally friendly alternative is unbleached bulrush fiber.
