On Sept. 1, the Burger’s Market is closing on Canton Road, where it has operated for more than four decades as a haven for fans of fresh produce.
Co-owners Sharilyn Burger Turner and Tina Burger Perry, sisters who took over the business from their parents in 2002, have found a buyer for their property at 1395 Canton Road. They put the market up for sale earlier this year.
Sharilyn Burger Turner said the decision to sell was bittersweet, but their parents, who are still active in the market, want to retire. A family business through-and-through, it’s been a hard business to maintain, despite the market’s success, and she said it was time to call time on what’s also been an abiding passion.
“It was a very hard decision,” Turner said Wednesday afternoon, not long after announcing the closure. “We love all of our customers and friends. We’ve been praying hard about it, that God would lead us in the right direction.”
Truman Burger, her father, opened a fresh produce market a little further up on Canton Road in 1973, then moved it to its present location at the intersection of Dickson Road in 1978.
Produce hailing from local sources, Georgia and the Southeast has been the centerpiece of the market, which has expanded to include jams, breads, artisanal and homemade food goods, as well as fresh herbs and plants.
Sharilyn and her mother were visiting with long-time customers, even exchanging a few hugs after breaking the news. For the week and a half that Burger’s will remain open, she says they will continue to do business as usual (the hours are 9-6 Monday-Saturday).
Truman Burger makes daily trips to the state farmer’s market in Forest Park, and other produce-procuring routines also will continue, including occasional visits to the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville.
Huge fans kept shoppers cool, with full supplies of what has drawn fresh-food lovers to Burger’s for decades. Vine-ripe tomatoes, very big and very red ones, are piled high in baskets.
“We built this business on vine-ripe tomatoes,” Sharilyn says. But that is hardly all.
Shelled peas, beans, zucchini and squash, okra, cucumbers, broccoli, turnips and collards, peppers, lettuce, cauliflower, peanuts, corn, onions and potatoes are organized neatly.
So are melons, bananas, oranges, pears, apples and other fruits. There’s plenty of elbow room, and so much to choose from. Out front, fresh plants sit in overflow fashion on tables.
This is all Sharilyn, Tina, their siblings and their own families have known.
“We grew up in banana boxes here,” says Sharilyn, whose children also have been raised around the market.
“It’s scary when you’ve never done anything else. But you have to think of this as a new adventure. God closes one door, and opens another one.”
The new owner has not said what might occupy the place where Burger’s Market is now.
Sharilyn said she’s unsure what her next step will be. She majored in psychology in college, and has thought of possibly putting that background to use in an assisted living environment.
“I love helping people,” she says, “but I’d like to think that we’ve been doing that here” at the market. “We just have wanted to make a difference with what we’ve been doing every single day.”
She admits saying goodbye to customers will be as hard as shutting the doors for good.
“They’re family.”
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