Wade’s president says they’re not closing; Patriot defends its reporting

Following posting of our article Friday afternoon on Wade’s Supermarket in Dublin, Wade’s President Greg Wade sent the following statement to The Patriot via email.

Dear Publisher,

I think you are ahead of yourselves with the announcement of Wade’s in Dublin closing.  I AM THE PRESIDENT OF WADE’S AND NO SUCH STATEMENT HAS BEEN MADE BY ME! 

It is correct that we need more sales. Wade’s feels that a great number of people really like our meat dept and deli.  If I had heard once I’ve heard 1,000 times “I love your meats, and only buy my meat at Wade’s.” Unfortunately we need to sell some canned goods and other product along with the meat that we sale.

It is a known fact in the grocery industry that Walmart buys groceries cheaper and sells groceries cheaper than just about any other grocery store or big box store. It is a sad time in the grocery business for an underfunded independent such as Wade’s.

However, in hopes to STAY OPEN, I felt that I would do some crazy marketing and that is how the 10% off sale came about.  We are trying to allow our customers to continue to buy their meat and deli from us and lower our grocery costs to the customer enough that they will want to shop for more items while they are at Wade’s.

With this said, it will give the customer a chance to make their decision on whether they want to have one supercenter in town to buy their goods or Wade’s as well.

Wade’s at the present time is trying to figure out how to rebuild its business to become profitable again in Dublin.  Any and all ideas from our current or former customers I would like to hear at gbwade@rbnet.com .

Sincerely

Greg Wade

In response to Mr. Wade’s comments above, and his Facebook claims of “Fake News,” here is our side of the story.

We received a call Friday afternoon from one of our sources who stated that an announcement was to be made Friday that Wade’s in Dublin is closing.

We immediately called the Manager in Dublin to ask him directly if that is true.

We were told by a store employee that the Manager was out, and we were directed by that employee to the Assistant Manager who – during our conversation with her – stated she had worked at the store for 30 years.

We identified our self to her, and asked her if the tip we had received about Wade’s closing was true and she responded flatly, “Yes.”

We asked when that closing would occur, and she said she had not been told that.  She then told us that when Wade’s closed their Radford store, the closing announcement was made about three weeks before the doors were locked.

She stated further that management’s instructions were to accept no more vendors or truck deliveries at the store.

While Mr. Wade may disagree with his Assistant Manager’s statements, we stand by our reporting and our attempt to obtain the facts.

The Patriot is the only locally owned newspaper in Pulaski County, and being locally owned we understand more than many the importance of supporting local business. We would hate to see Wade’s or any other local business close due to poor sales or otherwise, and take no great joy in reporting any such closings. We wish Wade’s and its employees well in the future.

However, we believed our source to be valid, and we obtained our information for our story from a management employee at the Dublin store and had no reason to doubt her validity.

The Patriot is a credible news source and does not publish “fake news.”

Mike Williams, Publisher, The Patriot