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WILKES-BARRE — Bruce Fendler won’t be taking the poster of beef cuts with him to his new job.
There’s a mistake on the laminated sheet on the wall next to the refrigerated case of fresh cut meats in Harry’s Market. “It’s missing sirloin tip,” he said Thursday.
Fendler, 58, would know. He’s been cutting meat for years and did just about everything else at the store started by his grandfather Harry in 1945. His parents Seymour and Shelia followed in the family business.
After 73 years and three generations behind the counter, Fendler is closing the market on Saturday. Competition and dwindling customers forced his hand.
“It all chips away,” Fendler said.
He traced his connection to the store back to before his birth. “My mother was pregnant with me when they moved here in 1959,” Fendler said. He recalled sweeping the floor as boy and crawling under the produce bins to pick up onion skins that had fallen.
During a phone call with a customer he announced, “I’ll be working at Gerrity’s meat room in West Pittston. Come see me there.”
The turnaround will be quick as he starts next week.
“I was hoping to hold on ‘til I retired,” Fendler said. But, thankfully, he’s been able to find work in his trade. “Meat cutters are in short supply,” he said.
One of his regular customers walked up to rear of the store to the display case and ordered a couple pounds of ground beef. Fendler weighed it, wrapped it in paper and handed it over. But when Fendler informed him of the closing, it hit the customer hard.
“You earned the right to do whatever you want to do,” said the customer who declined to give his name. “Good luck!”