8 St John Tradewinds, December 14-20, 2009

 

St. John Tradewinds News Photos by Eliza Magro

Starfish Market hosted a party to showcase the grocery
store’s new renovations on Friday, December 11. Guests
enjoyed an elaborate feast, open bar and music by Spec-
trum Band as well as many events throughout the week.

 

Starfish Says “Thanks” to Community with Week-long Celebration

By Jaime Elliott
St. John Tradewinds

After overseeing more than five months of renovations,
Starfish market officials threw a week-long party last week
to celebrate the store’s sleek new look and expanded offer-
ings.

Wine samples and food tastings were on offer every day
last week, including a December 9 turkey and ham spread
that fed more than 300 people. The festivities featured many
Starfish purveyors and culminated with a pancake breakfast
on Sunday, December 20.

As Starfish neared its first decade on the first floor of The
Marketplace, officials looked to update the supermarket, ex-
plained consultant Frank Laverde.

“TI was instrumental in designing the store 10 years ago
when it first moved to The Marketplace,” said Laverde. “Da-
vid Mugar, the owner, decided two years ago that we should
remodel the present store because it was getting tired.”

“He asked me to assign a firm and lay out the store again
to set it up for the remodel,” Laverde said.

Renovations got underway in early July and through-
out the process Starfish never shut its doors, Laverde ex-
plained.

“Tt was an especially tough remodel because we didn’t
close the store,” said the consultant. “We felt we had a com-

    
 
   

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mitment to the community to stay open. In fact, [store man-
ager] Nedra Ephraim insisted that we stay open because of
the commitment to the community — they expected it of
us.”

The celebrations last week marked the beginning of the
holiday season on St. John and served as a big “Thank You”
to Starfish customers, Laverde added.

“We wanted to thank the customers for shopping with
us under adverse conditions as we moved product around
almost daily,” said Laverde. “We celebrated all week.”

“The employees have been great and the customers have
continued to support us through the whole remodeling pro-
cess and we wanted to thank them,” said Starfish manager
Nedra Ephraim.

With bright new signs and expanded refrigeration, shelv-
ing and freezer space, Starfish offers even more products
than before, Laverde explained.

“We've changed all the refrigeration, expanded our shelv-
ing and freezer space and installed new flooring, ceiling and
lighting,” he said. “We’ve actually expanded the entire store
and picked up about 200 square feet more of space.”

“We've added space in all departments — meat, produce,
grocery and frozen foods,” Laverde said. “Now we can offer
even more variety of products in the store. We’re the only
full service supermarket on St. John and have most every-

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thing that people want.”

While the expanded offerings are a welcome upgrade for
customers, the Starfish renovations also marked an invest-
ment in the St. John economy, Laverde added.

“David Mugar [Starfish owner] is an astute businessman
and a philanthropist and he believes in giving back to the
community,” said Laverde. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve
invested more than $8 million in the stores, both the market
and the gourmet store. Most of that money was spent in sup-
plies and purchased between St. John and St. Thomas.”

“General contractor and subcontractor labor was all from
St. John for the most part,” Laverde continued. “That money
was spent in the community and spent probably during the
worst recession we’ve seen since the 1920s.”

Starfish owner David Mugar is committed to offering the
best possible shopping experience for St. John customers,
Laverde explained.

“David’s commitment was to make Starfish an even bet-
ter store for the people of St. John,” he said. “Alone this year
the remodel cost more than $2.5 million. David has always
believed in taking care of the employees and customers and
the business will be successful and it is.”

Starfish is open daily from 7:30 a.m. until 9 p.m., on the
first floor of The Marketplace. For more information call
779-4949.

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