MONROE, MI — A local market will soon be without a face familiar to customers for nearly five decades.
Randy Montri, manager of Hi-Lite Fresh Market on Telegraph Road, is retiring after 48 years.
“They say you know when it’s time, and it just feels like it’s time, you know?” he said. What started as a summer job in 1978 became a decades-long career, and ends on Friday, June 26.
Montri originally started stocking shelves at 17 as part of a co-op program for his school to earn credits. However, he found himself sticking around, partially because advancement opportunities opened up at the store, and partially because he enjoyed the people he interacted with.
“They’ll talk about their problems to me a little bit, I’ll talk about mine, and, you know, (they’ll) just stop by, say hello,” he said.
There are customers that Montri has seen grow up from children, or who have been coming to the market into their old age. He said that once, when he was at a chiropractor appointment, he met someone there who had been going to the market since she was three. An elderly customer gives him a card for Christmas.
“We try to take care of the customers, and the customer’s going to take care of you,” he said.
According to the market’s owner, Mason Yono, Montri has become a staple of the store through his reliability. He even came to work when he had elbow surgery and was down the use of one arm.
“It would take heaven and earth to make sure that Brandy does not come to work on a day,” Yono said.
Montri also helped integrate new employees, including Lori Stevens, who started as a bagger 35 years ago and now is Montri’s co-manager. When asked what she would say to him, Stevens said, “Don’t leave me.”
“I will miss him,” Stevens said. “Everybody here will miss him. He’s a very hard worker.”
“(He’s) about the best person I could work for,” added employee Ryan Mitchell, who has worked at the market for four years.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Hi-Lite Fresh Market manager retires after 48 years
Reporting by Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
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By Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
