When Jeff and Glenda Jones close their Bacchus Marsh shop next month, they will be saying goodbye to a business which has traded for 60 years, employed three generations of locals and shared in its community’s milestones.
Mrs Jones, of Jeff Jones Plants and Produce, in the Avenue of Honour, 388 Bacchus Marsh Road, said their customers were more like family who often ended up working at the store or even marrying on its grounds.
“One girl who works here now, her grandfather used to work for us,” she said.
Mrs Jones said Werribee River ran along the back of the property and the couple hosted up to seven staff weddings.
She said in the 1960s, the couple’s 12-hectare apple orchard supplied the big grocery chains.
Then, 35 years ago, they changed the business, planting two-thirds of the property with stone fruit and vegetables and selling directly to the public.
“It was the best thing we did,” Mrs Jones said.
She said people from Melbourne’s western suburbs, particularly migrants, would drive to the store and buy boxes of fruit and vegetables.
“It was a real family thing,” Mrs Jones said.
She recalled it was so busy, the store had “four girls on the register going all day”.
Mrs Jones, 73, and her husband Jeff, 82, said their age, COVID-19 lockdowns and on-line shopping were among the reasons they were retiring.
Jeff Jones Plants and Produce’s last trading day is Sunday, November 27.
Dora Houpis
