By:Brian McLaughlin
C-Town, located at 344 Hempstead Avenue, will close its doors for the final time sometime next week. It wasn't something we wanted to do, said co-owner Mark Ambers, but it's something we had to do.
The business was started by Ambers' father in 1964. Mark became a part of the business three years afterwards and today runs it with co-owner Alan Schubach.
I feel like I've been a close friend to this community for the 35 years I've worked here, said Ambers.
C-Town's troubles can be traced back to last year, when the supermarket received an unfavorable report by state food safety and inspection services. Chief among the complaints filed in the report were claims of rodents and insects soiling the products. The report also accused the store of poor upkeep of facilities and problems with employees adhering to sanitary regulations. According to the inspectors, the deficiencies they detected in C-Town justified legal action against the store unless the problems were corrected immediately.
Conditions were sometimes really bad, said former employee Christopher Pomponio. There were times when we would find mold on potatoes and I was asked to scrape it off and put the food back on the shelves.
To make matters worse for C-Town, the negative report was highly publicized. CBS news broadcast a story about the store's allegedly poor conditions.
But C-Town's owners said the report was not a major factor in the decision to close. Some customers were upset by the TV report, said Schubach, but our customers are very loyal...the report had nothing to do with our decision to close.
One of those loyal customers, Ruth Fila of Malverne, said she was not bothered by the report. I said,
