West Point Market’s last call is a sale Friday of its two iconic British telephone booths and store fixtures.
But if you want a phone booth you’ll have to outbid a determined buyer: Rick Vernon, owner of the nearly 80-year-old Akron grocery that closed last week.
The West Point building at 1711 W. Market St. will be the site of the auction beginning at 9:30 a.m. Friday featuring the red telephone booths and the store’s kitchen, bakery and deli equipment, loads of shelving, two delivery vehicles and more.
The phone booths, while authentic, were not hooked up to a phone system; they served as part of the specialty grocery’s interior decor for more than 25 years.
Vernon said he is “definitely going to bid on the booths,” as well as other items for the new West Point, which he plans to open at a yet-to-be-disclosed location in Fairlawn.
Some items also would be useful in an “interim” store, which could open as soon as February, Vernon said.
So if Vernon wants stuff, why isn’t he just taking it?
He explained that he can’t simply take assets of the now-closed West Point operation because he had a partner in that business.
Bidding at an auction seemed like the most efficient way to acquire assets, he said. And there are many items he doesn’t plan to bid on.
Officials plan to reveal the location of the interim store later this week. West Point is still working on negotiations concerning the Fairlawn site.
The auction comes as a developer out of Georgia plans to raze the West Point building to make way for a plaza to be anchored by a Whole Foods. An entity affiliated with the developer paid $4.5 million for the West Point property, according to county records.
The auction is billed as “absolute,” meaning the highest bidder for an item wins. Kiko Auctions is handling the auction.
Russ Vernon, Rick’s father, installed the phone booths in the store in 1987 as part of a major redo and expansion of the property.
Russ Vernon, who oversaw the store for years, thought the phone booths would be a good fit since the market’s wide range of specialty offerings included a healthy amount of British items, and the store had a fair number of customers with British ties.
Rick Vernon said the cast iron booths, made in the 1950s, each weigh about 2,000 pounds.
Workers used a tow motor to get the booths into the store.
“It was quite the production,” he said.
He said his father initially inquired about buying one booth. The seller, in England, said, “You have to buy two. You can’t just buy one.”
One of the booths was installed in the wine department. The other was next to the ice cream freezer.
Larry Uhl, who was president of the business, was Vernon’s partner. He decided last year he did not want to be involved with the new West Point. Rick Vernon eventually wants to open smaller “satellite” markets in addition to the store planned for Fairlawn.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.