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Bayside grocer hangs up her apron

By Chason Wainwright Daily Planet Correspondent
Friday January 19, 2001

Helen Low doesn’t seem too concerned that her grocery store, Bayside Foods, closed its doors Saturday after nearly 37 years of business.  

The store will re-open under new ownership next week.  

Low, whose husband opened Bayside Foods in 1964 at 2020 San Pablo, and later moved the store to 2032 San Pablo, said she’s been running the store by herself, working seven days a week, for over 10 years because her husband left the store to run another business.  

“I’m old enough to collect social security,” Low said. “I might as well.” 

Low, 63, said when the store opened it was the only grocery store in the area, but that many new grocery stores have since opened in the area.  

“It’s getting too crowded in here for me. There’s too much competition.” She said it will be nice to have some time for herself. 

Low is said she is saddened she won’t see a lot of her regular customers anymore, many of whom she considers to be like family. Many customers were shocked and upset when she told them about closing, she said.  

Looking out on the sidewalk near Bayside, Low spots Annie Carter, a customer since the store opened in 1964.  

Carter, 65, grew up in Berkeley and said her kids, the oldest of whom is 50, grew up with Low’s children. The stores closure, she said, saddens her. 

“I hate it. I’ve known them so long, they’re family.” 

Walking back to the store, Low is approached by Pat Brooks, another customer. “I need meat, Helen! Where am I going to go now?” Brooks, now 47, moved from Texas to Berkeley with her family in the fifth grade and said her whole family has always shopped at Bayside. “I can’t believe it [is closed]. It’s sad.”  

Low said that she has seen three or four generations of some families coming to shop at Bayside. Almost everybody who came in knew her by name, but she admitted she had a hard time remembering everybody’s names. But always remembered their faces. She is still receiving phone calls from customers who didn’t realize the store was closed. 

Low thought the grocery business was okay as long as she didn’t have any problems, like shop-lifting or fighting. She remembered a female customer trying to shop-lift goods in a bag, which Low attempted to retrieve from the woman. The woman struggled with Low and then bit her in the hand and ran away. Low said the woman eventually came back to the store after about a year, perhaps thinking that Low had forgotten the incident.  

“What can you do? You’re open to the public,” she said. 

Low said the new owners, a husband and wife, own two meat markets in the Bay Area, and will carry many of the same items she carried. She said that in a lot of ways the store will remain the same when it re-opens next week.  

“I told them ‘Don’t be too long because people know Bayside and may go elsewhere,’” she said.