WHEAT RIDGE —The owners of a Wheat Ridge grocery known for its Scandinavian fare and service from a bygone era will soon sell their last lutefisk and hang up their aprons.
Bob and JoAnn Gold have owned Gold’s Corner Grocery at the corner of 26th Avenue and Kipling Street for 26 years.
“The store’s been very good to us, and we’ve worked very hard in it,” JoAnn Gold said. “And now we’re just to the point in our lives where it’s time to not work so hard.”
In the days before people routinely drove across town to fight for a parking spot before walking through football-field-sized stores, there were neighborhood markets like Gold’s.
Opened in 1988, the store became known for its selection of Scandinavian goods, friendly employees, a deli offering home-cooked meals, a bakery and a wide variety of organic and natural foods — including fresh local produce Bob Gold would truck in from area farms.
Customers praised the couple, saying they provided a sense of community and convenience.
Carol Poole, 66, said she regularly shopped at the store not only for the convenience but for things like the peaches hand-packed and delivered from Palisade, or a turkey she’d order every December and pick up on Christmas Eve.
“I really am very sad about them closing. A family-owned business like that in the community is a delightful thing,” Poole said. “They were a huge asset in my life when I had young children and was running home from work and needed to get milk and bread or whatever else.”
Bob Gold began working for his father at Millers Supermarket in Pueblo when he was 16. He and his wife owned three small grocery stores over the years — including one in Leadville — before opening their Wheat Ridge store.
The Scandinavian offerings helped put Gold’s Corner Grocery on the map.
What started out as a small table with a few products ballooned into a profit center that drew people from across the Front Range for items such as potatis korv (potato sausages), cured fish, dried flatbreads and Bond-Ost cheese wheels.
“Finding and importing everything else turned out to be really fun, JoAnn Gold said, “and we were able to find stuff no one else around here had.”
Although business has been steady, Bob Gold conceded the difficulty and frustration of competing with chain stores and said it was time for him and his wife to retire. Both are in their mid-60s.
“It’s a miracle they’ve held on this long, but they worked hard, and when you went in there, they knew your name and treated you like they cared,” said Patrice Kondrotis, who manages a bowling alley underneath the store.
Bob Gold said the store is especially popular with elderly customers, who will have nowhere nearby to shop for groceries when the store closes.
Gold’s made deliveries to parts of Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and Edgewater.
“I feel sorry for our elderly customers who can’t physically make it through the monster stores,” Bob Gold said. “They’d call up, JoAnn would get the order, put everything together and I’d go deliver. I never charged them anything, just said ‘Hey, thank you for helping us.’ ”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
