BJ's Country Store in South Buffalo going out of business

Matt Hughes and Cory Stivanson hardly said a word walking into BJ’s Country Store late Tuesday morning, but cashier Janet Greene knew what was on their minds.

“A yes and yes?” she asked from behind the worn wooden countertops.

The pair assented, and Greene got to work on an Italian hoagie for Hughes and turkey hoagie for Stivanson — no mayo.

BJ’s, a mom-and-pop convenience store along Freeport Road in South Buffalo, is as popular as ever for its deli, Marburger milk and seasonal decorations for sale.

The Christmas selection will be 50% off through Dec. 31 — and then gone for good.

That’s because owner Jim Smith has decided to close at the end of the year.

“I can’t get help,” he said. “We made money. We did well. We were busy.”

Smith, 80, and Greene, 66, are the only people running the store. They usually split the day in three chunks: Smith opens at 6 a.m., Greene takes over from about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Smith returns until close at 6 p.m.

Greene, who took the job about two years ago, has found the customers mostly pleasant and her boss “easy to work for.”

Dozens of employees have come and gone over the years, Smith recalled, but in the past five years or so they’ve mostly gone. He partly blamed higher-paying businesses moving into town and offering wages he can’t match.

“When we started 35 years ago, there was no Giant Eagle, there was no Walmart, there was no GetGo,” he said.

The “BJ” moniker came from combining his first initial with that of his former business partner, Bill Singer.

It doesn’t help that high school students, a cheap and abundant labor force for many businesses, can’t work there because of a federal ban on minors operating deli slicers.

Still, Smith thought he could work through the staffing struggles.

He was wrong — and tired of working 80-hour weeks between the store and his auto repair shop, BJ Service in Freeport.

He said the repair shop will stay open and continue to keep him busy.

“We turn 25% to 30% of our work away here,” he said. “This is how busy we are.”

As for his South Buffalo property, Smith is selling it to a construction company. The deal is pending, so he declined to share the name of the company or details of the transaction, but the building will cease to be a store on New Year’s Eve.

And with that, Hughes will have to find a new favorite hoagie.

“It has to be the bun,” Hughes said. “Anywhere else you get a hoagie, it’s not quite the same.”