Past and present meet at Mighty Jim’s

It’s not easy interviewing Joannie Wannacott.

It isn’t that the diminutive brunette is difficult to talk to, in fact, that’s the problem.

It seems everybody in the vicinity of Mighty Jim’s Variety on Grand Avenue East knows her, and Joannie always has a few minutes to talk.

From the man – who wants a pound of corned beef “you want that sliced thin, right?” – to a young girl “you didn’t ride your bike in the snow today did you?” – Joannie knows something about everyone.

As the operator of arguably Chatham’ s oldest variety store (114 years and counting) she’s part grocer, part friend and all-neighbour to those who frequent the business at the corner of Grand and Van Allen Avenue.

“The best part is the people,” she said. “You get to know about them and their family and they learn about you,” she said. “If somebody’s missing for a few days and they’re usually in every day, (and) if they’re older we might ask their neighbour about them. We’ll learn that someone went by the door and they’re ok.”

Joannie and her husband Jim bought the store in 2000.

When he died three and a half years ago, she kept the business open.

The interview is stopped again when a customer enters to check his lottery tickets.

“Did your numbers come in last night?” he’s asked. Shortly after he departs with fresh tickets and a wish that he wins, telling Joannie “I’ll put that big number on your window yet.”

She said watching customers who were once children come in now with children of their own is fun but “it makes you feel kind of old.”

She said the store was making memories long before she and Jim owned it.

“There are great memories here,” she said looking at some old photos of the building. “There used to be a step here where the front door was. When we first opened the store people thought (the building) was about 100 years old.”

“At the opening this guy showed up; he looked about 80 years old and he told us the store is a lot older than that,” she recalled. “He told us his grandfather owned it. It was a dry goods store and livery stable. I believe it because we found a lot of horseshoes when we renovated.”

He told me “I’m going to get a box of crackerjacks and sit outside on the step and eat them. Please don’t come outside and bother me. This is my memory.”

She’s the ninth owner of the store that was opened by the Stein family. It was later owned by J.J. Mackness, Lillian Gale, Cecil and Morley Phillips, the Martin and Lachine families, and Khanh and Sinh Pham.

She said she’s proud of how Jim led a petition to get a traffic light at the corner. “It was so dangerous because the traffic just flies along Grand,” she said. “There were a lot of people hurt trying to cross the street.”

Much has changed since the couple took over.

“The way we run the whole business has changed,” she said. “We have to order everything online now.”

She said “enclosed smokes” are a big issue, as legislation has made it more difficult to buy cigarettes.

“When we started, we were selling 85 cartons of Players a week. Now we sell one.”

She said the decrease isn’t due to people quitting smoking.

“It’s gone to the black market, I don’t care what anyone says,” she said. “I can’t blame my customers because they’re so expensive.”

Tobacco was responsible for one of two robberies the store has had over the years.

“We were robbed once for cash and once for some cigarettes we had out on the counter,” she said.

The loss of tobacco sales has forced the store to look for other revenue.

“We always had the deli but we really didn’t expand it until a few years ago,” she said. “It’s really doing well. We now make sandwiches or subs on any meat we have in the deli. It’s all freshly cut. “

The old-style feel to the store extends to groceries.

“If you want a half head of lettuce, or three eggs or a half pound of butter, we can do that,” she said. “We even give change for people to do laundry.”

She said government paperwork and what she calls the “tobacco police” are aspects of the business that can be exasperating.

“When you have three cops in full body armor combing through you entire store, any crawl space or attic, it can be frustrating,” she said. “It’s government, so everything has to be done their way.”

Still, it’s a job that has its fun as well. “Our number one selling ice cream is bubble gum,” she said. “And the number one group that buys it is the adults.”