End of an era for longtime family-owned Compton’s Market
By LANCE ARMSTRONG
Sacramento’s Dave and Mike Compton have sold the last of their family’s chain of locally-owned grocery stores, known as Compton’s Markets.
But fortunately for the neighborhood, the store’s new owners, Pam and Sunil Hans, have vowed to maintain the store’s name, employees and overall offerings that have made this store a community treasure.
Pam, Dave said, will head the operations of the store, while Sunil will maintain his high level position with the 7UP Bottling Co.
Although many customers are disappointed with the sale of the business, Dave assures the public that very few notable changes will be made to the store.
Additionally, Dave, 60, said that his brother, who is 57, plans to assist the new owners as an advisor in helping them understand what type of operations work best in this neighborhood store.
Building a business
The stores were originally owned and operated by Dave and Mike’s father, Bill Compton, and their uncles, Loy and Lou Compton.
Bill, who passed away a little more than a year ago and was the last of the surviving original owners of the markets, gifted his sons the 24th Street and McKinley Boulevard stores upon his retirement.
Dave recently met with the East Sacramento News to discuss the sale of the East Sacramento store, as well as the history of his family’s longtime grocery venture in the capital city.
Sitting behind his desk, wearing a blue Polo sweater and flashing the same friendly smile that has greeted thousands of patrons of his store throughout the years, Dave said that he felt the timing was right to sell the store.
“I’m 60 and I’ve been doing this since 1966, so that’s about 45 years, so it’s time to try something new,” said Dave, a 1967 graduate of Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks. “My brother and I had been kicking around the idea of selling this store for the last three years. We both knew that we were getting toward the ends of our careers and neither one of us wanted our kids to be in the grocery business, so we discouraged that and we told them to go to college. My dad used to say, ‘I don’t think the store will be around when your kids are grown up.’ I’m sure my dad is smiling from on high that we got to get out.”
“I’m really going to miss the people who I had a chance to get to know throughout the years,” Dave said. “We’re on a first name basis with most of the people who come into the store. I have a lot of casual acquaintances and a lot of good friends (who are Compton’s customers), so working with the public is the part I’m going to miss the most. That’s always been my sort of forte to just say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ and to learn something about their families. I’ve always been fairly outgoing when it comes to that. I’m just really happy to have had an opportunity to do that and I’m going to miss that a lot.”
Changing hands
Many customers have expressed their gratitude for the East Sacramento store and their disappointment with its recent sale.
Louisa R. Vessell, who lives less than a mile from the store, said that she was surprised to learn of the sale of the store and called the store upon learning the news.
“I was really saddened when I heard the news (about the sale of the store) and I immediately called the store and talked to Dave and asked, ‘Why?’ Vessell said.
Jeanette Ashton, 92, who also lives nearby the store, said that she has been shopping at Compton’s in East Sacramento since the year that it opened.
“I have been coming here since April 1965 when this was a Stop-N-Shop store,” Ashton said. “(Compton’s) has been really handy for me for many years. You can get anything you want here. You don’t have to go all over. Boy, I’ll miss the (Compton family).
Another noteworthy patron of Compton’s is Paul Guidera, who Dave said often purchases flowers from the store to place on the East Lawn Cemetery grave of his late wife, Anita.
In addition to the store’s many dedicated customers, Dave said that Compton’s stores have had a variety of long-term employees, including Royal Clark, who managed the 45th and D streets store for about 20 years, Harry Nakamura, a produce worker for about 12 years and Bob Colby, who worked for about six years in the meat department in the 14th Street and Broadway store.
Another very notable employee, Elaine Davies, is enjoying the final days of her 42-year career working in Compton’s Markets.
“I started working for Compton’s in 1967,” Davies said. “At this time, there were a lot more independent grocery stores like Van’s markets and Tom Thumb markets. I started working at 14th (Street) and Broadway in a little office adjacent to the store. I originally worked for Bill Compton. Bill did not know a stranger. We would have a luncheon for employees and people would walk up and say, ‘Man, you guys are having the best time of your lives’ and the next thing you know, Bill would have them sitting down next to us and talking to us. He was just a very congenial man. In fact, all three of the brothers who started Compton’s were just loved by everybody. It’s just been a great time working here. It has been the wildest ride of my life and I never had a day that I didn’t want to come to work.”
New era for Compton’s
Being that Compton’s Market is not closing, but is simply changing ownership, Dave invites the public to continue to shop at this longtime East Sacramento grocery store once the new ownership begins operating the store.
For additional information about Compton’s Market, call (916) 456-2443.
E-mail Lance Armstrong at lance@valcomnews.com.
