A Grocery Goes Dark, and a Town Wonders What Comes Next

For months, residents of Pine Plains watched the decline of their only grocery store, Peck’s Market.

The shelves thinned. Hours shifted. The community cornerstone where generations ordered Thanksgiving turkeys, teenagers held their first jobs, and neighbors traded news in the aisles began to feel unsteady, as if something essential were quietly loosening. The deterioration was slow.

By late September, the lights were off, the doors locked, and the phone number that had been part of family routines for decades offered a blunt recording: “Your call is currently suspended, please try later.”

No sign appeared on the door. No explanation came from co-owners Don and Charlene Peck, the third generation of the family to run the 103-year-old business. Multiple employees told the Herald they had been let go. When asked about the store’s status on Thursday, Nov. 20, Don Peck declined to comment.

The apparent slipping away of Peck’s Market has left Pine Plains without a grocery store for the first time in more than a century, raising urgent questions about food access, downtown vitality, and what the loss of a cornerstone business means for the business district of a rural community already strained by vacancies.

Between 1982 and 2017, the market share of independent grocers fell from 53% to 22%, according to reporting in The Atlantic. Independent grocers nationwide have struggled with shrinking margins, changing supplier networks, and consolidation that favors large chains — pressures Don Peck had partially acknowledged in August.

Already, Peck’s Market absence has been felt across town. At Pine Plains Fine Wine and Spirits on Church Street, owner Gautam Patel said he noticed a shift immediately.

“Right now, I’m just surviving,” he said. “Every business depends on other businesses. A grocery market is the key.”

Patel estimated his sales have dropped an estimated 18% since mid-September, a decline he attributed directly to Peck’s closure.

“People used to come from Gallatin, Shekomeko, and Elizaville,” Patel said. “Now they don’t come here for groceries. They’re going in different directions, so they buy their wine and spirit over there.” If a store does not open soon, he added, “One and a half years, maybe I can survive. That’s my guess.”

At Champêtre, the French restaurant on Church Street, owner Michel Jean said he sees the same ripple effect.

“It means a lot to have a grocery store in the village because some people come to get food there, and then at the same time they come to a restaurant,” he said. “Now they go somewhere else for groceries, and they will go for another restaurant. It affects all the business of the village.”

In the rolling hills outside of town, Chaseholm Farm owner Sarah Chase feels the gap as both a producer and a resident.

“We need a grocery store. I think that’s essential for a small town,” she said. Chase’s small farm store sells a limited inventory of locally produced foods but, she said, “I won’t ever really be a proper grocery store. I really wish that space [Peck’s] could become a grocery store again.”

Next door to Peck’s, Kenzie Killmer, owner of Storybook Café, said the closure has cut into her foot traffic.

“It’s not just Peck’s,” she said. “It’s the old library. It’s the old Peck’s, the refillery closed. The town is dying. One store at a time.”

For Killmer, the loss is also personal. Her family, which ran Lia’s Mountain View restaurant for four decades until January 2024, relied on Peck’s for daily and weekly supplies.

“Somebody would say, ‘run to Peck’s, run to Peck’s,’ and they always had what you needed,” she said. “It was priced affordably back then.”

What stings most now, she said, is the silence.

“Somebody was knocking on their [Peck’s] door Sunday morning and then came over here and asked me what was going on,” she said. “It’s not like a public announcement was made and shared with the community and the former customers.”

Residents fear the current Peck’s building may follow the fate of another property owned by the family — the original Peck’s Market on South Main Street, which has been vacant for several years.

“That’s my biggest fear,” Killmer said. “That they’re gonna let the same thing happen to this building. We can’t afford another dead space in the center of town.”

Two individuals have told the Herald they have made offers to purchase or rent the property for use as a grocery.

Whether a buyer emerges, whether the business reopens, or whether the property remains dark indefinitely may hinge in part on the financial fallout from ongoing litigation against Don and Charlene Peck.

In April 2024, the distributor Bozzuto’s Inc. sued Peck’s for more than $77,000 in unpaid invoices and related interest going back to February 2024. Court filings show the Pecks did not respond to repeated orders. On Oct. 23 the court determined that a default judgement should be entered.

On Thursday, Nov. 20, the Pecks appeared at a virtual hearing to review the judgment. Because they appeared and indicated they wanted to dispute the amount owed, U.S. District Court Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke referred the matter to a magistrate judge for a settlement conference. If no agreement is reached, the case will return to Clarke. There is no clear timeline for a potential settlement. Likewise, there is no clear answer for residents wondering if and when they will be able to buy groceries without leaving Pine Plains.

“I would love a real grocery store,” Killmer said. “Something with a great produce section and options would be fantastic. It would help the town so much.”

Across the street, Jean put it simply: “This town needs a grocery store.”