Manager will close his store for final time
SALEM – Every weekday at 5 a.m., Wayne Boitnott arrives at Apple Market on Apperson Drive in Salem from his home in Vinton and starts cleaning, getting Store No. 304 ready to open at 6 a.m.
He’s done it for 41 years, starting back when it was Orange Market. Even before that, he worked for Green Market in downtown Salem.
Apperson Drive Apple Market Manager Wayne Boitnott gets a hug from regular customers Gail Thomas, left, and Danielle Ellis. Starting next week the store will be leased by 7-Eleven, and Boitnott is retiring after 41 years. Photo by Meg Hibbert
Next week, Boitnott is going to retire. At least, for now. His store is one of four Apple Market convenience stores in Salem and six total the Roanoke Valley that is becoming a 7-Eleven.
Boitnott had an opportunity to stay on with Apple Market in one of the remaining locations retained by Workman Oil, but he says it’s time to retire.
Wayne’s regular customers are going to miss him at what they call “Wayne’s World.”
“I come here three times a day. Wayne always has me an ice cup for my canned drink and a pack of cigarettes,” said Gail Thomas. “We really have grown up with him. I was 7 when I first went down there,” said Thomas, who lives nearby in South Salem.
Danielle Ellis praised Boitnott for taking care of his customers. “I used to work at Crossroads. I’d be here at 6 a.m. and he’d let me in before he opened so I could get my coffee,” recalled Ellis, who now works next door at Chili Peppers.
Boitnott greets each customer while effortlessly issuing Virginia Lottery tickets, ringing up soft drinks, beer, cigarettes while asking about what’s going on with that person.
“Hot enough for you?” he asked one customer who was buying a ginger ale. “I guess we’ll have to get used to it.”
“You never see him grumpy,” said Ron Binner who delivers to the market as part of his route for H.T. Hackney in Salem. “Wayne’s the only one who knows how to merchandise stock and make it sell.”
Sal Ambrosio, owner of nearby Ernie’s Grill, stopped in for a moment. “Wayne does a lot of favors for a lot of people,” he said.
Boitnott started out in 1963 with the late Ralph Richardson who owned the Green Market in downtown Salem, and Ronnie Mowles.
Ronnie now works part-time at the Orange Market at Hanging Rock, he said. It’s the only one of the former Orange Market stores that retains that name, according to Boitnott. Russell Shreves was his supervisor. Shreves now works in the produce department of Kroger at Spartan Square, he said.
Over the years, more businesses started up in the convenience market field. “Walmart carries what convenience markets do, like milk and bread,” Boitnott pointed out.
Still, Apple Market on Apperson maintains a steady business. “Our business is super. We do a real good business,” Boitnott said.
“Apple Market has been a great place to work,” he said. “They treated me good.”
Boitnott, who is 63, and his wife of 45 years, Nancy, have a daughter, Tracie Gross and son-in-law Steve, who lives in Thomasville, N.C., with the Boitnotts’ three grandchildren: Christina, Kimberly and Josh.
He knows he’s going to miss his regular customers after his last day, June 16.
He hasn’t made up his mind what he’s going to do after he “retires.”
“I’ll take some time off, and work around the house, rest up and get my mind made up about another store,” he said, not giving any details about the latter.
