Tuesday, Jerry Evans was – in his own words – fired up about the unexpected closure of Middle Valley Road right in front of his store, Finders Keepers Resale Shop.
A portion of the road was closed last week when construction crews building a new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market across from Finders Keepers began tying into the water and sewer system.
It should have been quick, said Matt Phillips, vice president of real estate for The Hutton Company, the Chattanooga firm leading the grocery store project. But once under the road, water lines nobody expected to see showed up.
The road stayed blocked and up to 80 percent of Evans’ customers stopped coming. And each day, his temper burned hotter.
Finally, Evans had enough and reached out to local media and aired his frustrations: the road was still blocked, it would have been nice to have been in the loop about the closure timeline and he was losing customers.
Legally, developers posted the required notice about the road. But Hutton Company leaders were dismayed that Finders Keepers was taking such a hit and that its owners felt surprised by the length of the closure of Middle Valley Road.
And “we did feel like we could have, in all honesty, handled the situation a little better than we did,” said Phillips.
So Hutton Company officials decided try and make it up to Finders Keepers.
Wednesday morning, Hutton Company officials reached Evans and set up a lunch time meeting at his store.
And everyone was invited.
The Hutton Company asked its entire office to show up at the Middle Valley resale shop and its neighboring businesses to shop and dine.
“It was definitely a welcome surprise,” said Evans, who pulled in Wednesday and found a packed store.
Hutton Company employees bought about half of the inventory on Finders Keepers’ shelves over the course of an hour-and-a-half.
At one point, around 75 people perused its shelves.
“I never would have expected any of this,” Evans said. “It’s a wonderful gesture that they did this to help us out.”
He said the boon more than made up for the creeping days prior, and he had heard from people living in the area that they’ll be back.
“You don’t see big businesses coming and helping out the little guys like this,” said Evans. “That shows character – there’s no doubt about that.”
Phillips said Hutton – a company that does commercial construction all over the country – was excited for a chance to do a project in its own backyard when it got the Middle Valley store contract.
And he said because of the unexpected delays with the sewer and water at the Middle Valley grocery store, Hutton Company officials were unaware the road would remain closed so long.
But as one Chattanooga company to another, he said Hutton wanted to help Finders Keepers.
“We wanted to apologize for all the inconveniences this caused,” said Phillips. “Being a local business ourselves, we understand what a disruption to business can do.”
He said the company also wanted make the situation an in-house learning experience, since somewhere along the way with the road closure, the company “didn’t go the extra mile, like we teach internally.”
Middle Valley Road is expected to be re-opened by today, or by sometime Friday, if more unexpected problems arise.
The new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is scheduled to open in December.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.