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The Voice of North Grenville
The North Grenville Times
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The Voice of North Grenville
Reaching by direct mail 8,500 homes and businesses in North Grenville www.ngtimes.ca
June 15, 2023
Vol. 11 No. 23
B&H mark 60 years in the community
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Judy and Jim Beveridge
STEVENS CREEK DECOR CENTRE HUNTER DOUGLAS GALLERY WITH OVER 40 WINDOW TREATMENT DISPLAYS! 2678 COUNTY RD 43 KEMPTVILLE
613-706-1250
June 15, 2023
by David Shanahan Everyone knows it as the B&H though its full and official title is “B&H Your Community Grocer”. Since 1963, the B&H has served as a grocery store, community centre, a place to shop, meet friends and neighbours, and tune into to what’s happening in North Grenville. Jim and Judy Beveridge are continuing the traditions inherited from Jim’s father, Keith who started the store with business partner Ken Haggett known as Red. Jim reminisced recently about the long story and the many changes surrounding the B&H over sixty years. “60 years of the B&H? On opening day when Dad and Red were here, Bert Loeb was here, President of
Loeb, who was the IGA franchisor who had bought the stores and convinced Dad to go partners with the guy who was the produce supervisor for the group of stores, Ken Haggett, although everybody called him Red. Dad and Red didn't realise that they still needed to buy the front end float from the previous owner; they had scraped to come up with the money they needed for the down payment and didn't have the money to pay the rest. And Burt Loeb, president of a major wholesale company at the time, paid for it. When my father asked him afterwards about signing a note for it, Burt said, "I know you'll pay me back". You know, no paperwork, nothing for $200 which was
a lot of money in 1963. And Dad paid back the loan, plus repaid it again and again with loyalty to Burt for that. “But it was a time, and it was a community, where your word was worth a lot. Highway 16 at that time went along both sides of the store, along Rideau and Sanders. So it was a time where car travel was becoming more important, and the store had what a lot of grocery stores at the time didn't have: there was parking. And because Highway 16 was a major route into Ottawa, Eastern Ontario was really big for American tourists coming through town until it was bypassed. And then we started to see the decline. In downtowns, when you take the banks and the liquor
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stores and the beer stores away from them, and then the highway bypasses, that creates a major change.” But, by then, the B&H was already a valued fixture in the life of the surrounding communities, and Jim couldn’t see the store disappear like so many other downtown businesses. “So, when I took over here in 2005, the biggest reason for me taking over the B&H was because I could not sell the B&H. It was Dad's store. I realise now, I'm not overly fond of the path that brought me to the B&H, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity.” The ties the B&H has to the community of North Grenville are deep and are another part of the legacy Jim feels his father left him. “It was important for my father to support the community that supported him. And he realised that when he came here to Kemptville, he lucked out. He got a location that was pretty sweet compared to what a lot of his business cohorts who were part of that original group had. He ended up with the most successful business out of all of those seven other stores. And it was that you support the community that you're part of. If it's good for the community in the long run, it's good for you.” cont'd on page 2
Specializing in financial planning & investments
samantha.rivet-stevenson @rbc.com 613-816-9697
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