General store closes, but maybe not for long

By M eg Britton-M elisch and a ina de l apparent a lvarez

PITTSFIELD — The Berkshire General Store closed in late December, but that North Street space may soon have a second life with a similar enterprise.

Representatives of Cavalier Management Inc, which owns the property, told the Board of Health in early January that they’d like to continue to operate the space with a new general store in the near future.

Richard Altman, who co-owns Cavalier Management, and team manager Tony Marcella, made those remarks while appearing before the board to transfer the Berkshire General Store’s tobacco permit.

“We’re going to try and make some improvements if we can,” Altman said. “[It will be] similar — we’re trying to work it out where we can keep a general store.”

Altman said he’s owned — as well as worked in — delis, convenience stores and restaurants.

“We have a lot of experience,” Altman said. “We just have to see if we can make it work.”

Altman and Marcella told the board in early January that they planned to have a new general store open within the next 60 days.

The Berkshire General Store, a deli and convenience place, closed Dec. 23.

The store’s co-owner, Lindsey Tuller, was asked shortly after the business closed why she was closing, but declined to discuss it.

“We would like to move on,” she said. Tuller said she had no new business plans.

“Thank you all for your blessings,” the owners wrote on the store’s Facebook page on the day they closed. “The decision to close was hard knowing we would leave the community [we] have. We are grateful for all the support you have given us.”

In July, Tuller had told The Eagle that inflation was forcing her to raise prices.

“It’s horrible. Next week, deli prices are going up for our sandwiches. It’s crazy for us store owners,” she said then.

“Our hope was that at our shop, you could get a full meal — a sandwich, chips, and soda — for $10. Soda prices went up, chips went up. Now all together it’s $15.” ed in the building for half a century. An office space will be rented out as well.

Tuller and business partner P.J. Hunt had opened the Berkshire General Store in November 2015. Tuller had previously owned Riverbend Cafe in Great Barrington, which she closed in 2016.

Altman applauded Tuller’s work with the store when he appeared before the Board of Health. The two property owners said they plan to have future store clerks complete the city-required training for the sale of tobacco products and get their state and federal licenses for tobacco sales lined up.

The board unanimously approved the transfer of the Berkshire General Store’s tobacco permit to Marcella and Altman under the condition that the business completes tobacco sales training and submit its Department of Revenue licenses to the board.

After 39 years on North Street, the clothing business had become a fixture, helping generations of Berkshire County men look their best.

“We’ve been here for 40 years,” Evan Valenti said. “It’s obvious to me that, even if we don’t hear this echoed all the time, our location is attractive enough to get them to come down here.”

The men joke that as owners, maybe they’ll have more clout with the city when it comes to downtown issues.

Though North Street’s revival hasn’t been fully realized, Steven Valenti ticks off downtown features that give the city an edge, in his view.

“We have two performing arts centers.

Most cities, if they’re lucky, have one. We have two. We have a Beacon Cinema that’s state of the art, with six theaters within it,” he said. “And the Berkshire Museum is just a few blocks down from our store.”

Since its initial listing, the building’s price had come down, the men said. So they worked the numbers. And they talked about the future of the business.

“The deciding factor for us was that the downtown location made the most sense,” Steven Valenti said. It made sense, in part, to remain connected with customers who in 2022 brought the store its best wedding season in its history.

“No matter what we faced, the public obviously responded to us, in coming through the doors in record numbers,” Steven Valenti said.