Notable Edible - Wellfleet Marketplace
As a part-time Truro resident, it is not uncommon for me to stop into Wellfleet Marketplace several times per week, especially during the summer season when we have more family and visitors and it seems no matter how well-stocked we think we are, we always need more. Greek yogurt (the market is the only place around that carries our favorite brand), alternative flours for gluten-free baking, or a couple of bags of our favorite Massachusetts-made tortilla chips are constants. But as a devotee of books – the kind you hold in your hands and turn the pages of – I can never run in without at least pausing to scan the selection in what has to be the best grocery store book department on Cape Cod, if not the entire state. It is a gem, as valuable to vacationers in search of the perfect beach read as it is to those looking for entertainment, escape and enlightenment during the long, chilly months.
Wellfleet Marketplace packs a lot into its 5800 square feet opposite Town Hall on Main Street. A deli, bookstore and full-service grocery store all under one roof, the market saw a significant upgrade and name change in 2007 when the late retailer Marshall Smith purchased it from longtime owner Joe Lema. Under the leadership of his son Jed, who took over in 2020, more change is coming. In September, Wellfleet resident Barbara Boone replaced Bob Medeiros, who retired after 11 years, as general manager. A former golf professional who grew up in Mississippi, Boone managed Chequessett Club for 22 years before joining the Marketplace staff. She and Smith have plans that include enhancing the deli offerings, incorporating more local items into the product mix, and transforming the market into a community gathering spot.
When the elder Smith, who owned a home near Newcomb Hollow, bought the former Lema’s Grocery Store, he recognized the importance of keeping the business open year-round, even though it slows considerably in the off-season, because residents don’t have other options between Provincetown and Orleans. “My dad said we make 100% of profits in the summer and lose 90% of them in the winter,” says Smith. “The winter is our offering for the community. It’s important and we take it with pride.”
A venture capitalist with a focus on education and sustainability who has helmed three companies, Smith lives in California but spends time every summer at his Wellfleet home. Running the market largely remotely, he is involved in everything from overall strategy to major personnel decisions, but says he sees himself as “a kind of a steward for the family and for the community more than I am anything else.”
Consistent with his primary business focus, Smith hopes to augment the Marketplace’s product selection to include more environmentally-friendly items, while keeping prices as affordable as possible. “You don’t need to spend more to have healthy choices or choices that are better for the environment,” he says. “We don’t have ideal offerings yet. We’re on the way there. We’re working on that mix.”
“Food is a fashion industry,” according to Medeiros. During his time as general manager, he kept abreast of industry trends, frequented trade shows around New England and listened to customer requests, constantly working to keep ahead of demand. “We go by wholesalers’ suggested retail price,” he emphasizes, responding to some suggestions that prices sometimes seem too high. “The owners know it’s more expensive to shop in a place like this and they’re sensitive to it.”
Hard-cover best-sellers are frequently discounted, though, as they are at many independent and even larger bookstores. Which makes sense. Long before he got into the grocery business, Marshall Smith cofounded the legendary Paperback Booksmith chain (along with Learning smith and Video smith). “The book section came from my dad’s love of books,” says Smith. “We see the book section as part of the soul of our store and the community.”
In 2010 Marshall Smith hired Stephen Russell, a former bookstore owner, as the dedicated book buyer. “He’s the magic behind the selections and the offering,” the younger Smith says of Russell.
“I was so pleased to have Marshall still very involved in the store in the early years when I was working here,” Russell says. “He was such a great resource, and even more than that I just enjoyed sitting and talking to him. It was really his leadership that created a bookstore in a grocery store.”
Russell moved to Wellfleet with his wife in 1981 when she was appointed director of the town library. A librarian himself, Russell bought Wellfleet’s Twice Sold Tales and ran it for 10 years before selling it to begin a 20-year career in theatre as an actor, writer and director. By 2010, he was ready to make a change and heard from a friend that the Marketplace was looking for a book buyer. There had already been a couple of people doing the job, but the role had not been clearly defined. When he met with Smith, they hit it off. “[Marshall] gave me a lot of latitude, which I’m very grateful for. Having my own store in Wellfleet for 10 years and having the connection to the library too, I had a pretty good idea of what Wellfleet wanted to read,” he says. “I’m always so grateful that I landed in this community and that I got to serve this community of really good readers.”
Literary fiction is the department’s strongest selling category, though the store carries everything from current best sellers to mystery, to local and nature books. “We do really well with Cape Cod books,” notes the buyer. “But they have to be specific to this part of the Cape. If they’re too general about the whole Cape, people aren’t too interested in anything beyond Eastham. We’re very parochial out here.”
Though the Marketplace has long had a thriving deli department, one of Boone’s first acts was to bring in a new deli manager, self-trained local chef Tonya Felix, whose 349 Cafe food truck in town earned her a devoted following. Felix plans to add more made-to-order and breakfast items to the menu, so customers can look forward to temptations like breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, Cajun pork butt sandwiches, house-made chili and a wide array of coffee drinks and teas.
Boone and Smith are also hoping to create a communal area in the front of the store, which she says might mean relocating the wine department, at least seasonally. For the shoulder season and winter, “I have this vision, which I share with Jed, of turning it over into a community room. We don’t have a gathering space in winter to get coffee and pastry and sit down.”
On a gray afternoon in early fall, I stood in the middle of the wine section. I could imagine people gathered, in small groups and alone, catching up over snacks and drinks, or maybe just poring over a newly-acquired book. Stay tuned…
Wellfleet Marketplace
295 Main Street, Wellfleet
wellfleetmarketplace.com
