Mayor Steve McQueen proclaimed June 16, 2026 to be “Gray Family Day” in Yellow Springs — a tip of the top hat to the family’s decades of labor and love they poured into Tom’s Market. From left: Jeff Gray, who’s run the store since moving back to Yellow Springs in late 2021; Mayor McQueen; and Tom Gray, who’s been involved in the downtown grocery since he was a bag boy at Weaver’s more than 50 years ago. (Photo courtesy of the Village of Yellow Springs)
Big changes to small-town grocery
- Published: June 25, 2026
With a handful of recent storefront closures in downtown Yellow Springs, a pressing question naturally arises: Is the village at all in jeopardy of losing its longtime grocery store?
Not in the slightest, said the new interim general manager, John Mabbott, last week.
“I guarantee it,” he told the News. “In fact, I’m going to make it dance.”
Such a feat began with small-town exuberance on Tuesday morning, June 16, when around 100 villagers crowded the shoulder of Xenia Avenue to watch the ceremonial ribbon cutting — an occasion that marked the end of Tom’s Market and the beginning of Springs Market, and what could one day become a community-owned grocery store.
For now, villagers can expect business as usual at the downtown market — the same hours, operations, friendly staffers and inventory.
News readers will recall that the Yellow Springs Community Foundation announced late last year its intentions to facilitate the transition of Tom’s Market into a co-op, with the organization keeping in view the Gray family’s desire to step away from the business, and at the same time, seeking to retain local ownership and control of the downtown staple.
On Monday, that transition officially kicked off.
Jeff Gray, son of the store’s former namesake, turned over the keys to Tom’s Market to the foundation. The purchase included all Tom’s inventory, most of the coolers and machines, and full operational control of all 6,800 square feet of retail space and all products coming in and and going out.
A sizable crowd erupted in cheers when longtime store staffer David Warren and new interim general manager John Mabbott deftly cut the ribbon to the newest iteration of Yellow Springs’ downtown grocery store. The snip heard ‘round the village signaled the end of Tom’s Market and the beginning of Springs Market — what could one day become a community-owned co-op. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Changes are underway: The building’s facade got a new coat of burgundy paint and soon, a new awning will hang over the entrance. The seasonal pop dispensers went away and in their place are the ice machine and firewood. New bike racks were installed and additional accessible parking spaces were added — now with a wider berth.
Inside, the store no longer sells tobacco products — which don’t align with the Foundation’s values, the News was told — and the overhead shelving above the front register is gone.
This is all just the beginning, Mabbott said. Drawing from his decades of experience sprucing up stores across the country, he has a few more tricks in his apron.
The interim general manager hails from the Pacific Northwest, where he came of age in the grocery business. He started out at a Safeway — the West Coast-version of a corporate supermarket — in the late ’70s. He eventually worked his way to owning a neighborhood market and wine shop — the kind like Tom’s, he said, where meetings of the mind happen in the produce aisle and everyone knows your name.
Throughout his career, Mabbott’s been a fierce advocate for both worker rights and equitable retailing. In the late ’80s, he was a leader in the massive, 81-day labor strike among grocery clerks and meat cutters in the Puget Sound area, and later, worked for the largest consumer-owned food co-op in the U.S. — the Puget Consumers Co-op.
Nowadays, he works as a consultant — simply put, helping small-town markets make it work.
Interim general manager John Mabbot. (Submitted photo)
“There was only one I knew I had to close before I even walked in, the rest I’ve fixed,” Mabbott said.
“And trust me,” he added, gesturing at the new Springs Market. “This place is fine.”
His interim role as the store’s general manager over the next six months — that is, before the Community Foundation hires a permanent manager — is straightforward, he suggested. He isn’t there to help with the creation of a co-op model, but rather to make the grocery store more financially viable and evermore responsive to the needs of the immediate community.
“I want people to feel like they’re voting for the future of the store, the town, when they shop here,” Mabbott said. “We want to be a compelling store — one that makes you feel like s- -t for shopping at the competition, when we’re giving $150 to your kid’s robotics team.”
Mabbott said the new Springs Market will likely boast more regularly marketed specials, a diversified inventory and reduced prices throughout most sections of the store.
“We absolutely need more things on special — and you know, every store should always have two [frozen] pizzas for $12. I think that’s even in the Bible,” Mabbott quipped.
He plans to bring back paninis in the deli, consolidate the number of places where cheese is displayed and possibly revive an in-house butcher station, or at the least, partner with local meat producers to better stock the shelves. If he had his druthers, a stage for regular music performances would be behind the store.
Though he has these big ideas, he’s still a realist.
“No matter what, the math needs to work,” he noted.
He knows there’s no price-point comparison with what neighboring Kroger can offer — especially the “baby-sized $5 watermelons they’re getting by the semi-load” — but perhaps there are other avenues that a Yellow Springs store can tread that corporations can’t. To him, that looks like strengthening local relationships.
“Maybe there’s a day when a portion of our sales go to ‘Who’s Hungry?’” Mabbott mused.
With all those logistical and operational changes coming down the pike, there’s an above-all, imperative call Mabbott’s career has primed him to answer: how to keep taking care of his new people — the 26 stalwart staffers and department heads working through the store’s ongoing transition in ownership and management.
“I truly believe that customer service is a spiritual undertaking and, at the same time, a selfish act — you give great service to protect your future,” Mabbott said.
He continued: “But that service begins with learning to love yourself and knowing how not to take s—t from anybody — and getting a fair wage from doing the best you can and feeling safe. This place needs to be safe. The world has never been easier to be an asshole, never easier to hate.”
All his grand ambitions for the new Springs Market notwithstanding, Mabbott said he’s still open to suggestions — there’s a box near the front where patrons can write in a word of advice for new products, aesthetic changes, or any concern that strikes someone in the check-out lane.
But as a reminder: Mabbott’s here as an interim manager — a role he’s filling for six months until he returns home to the Pacific Northwest.
Kumar Jensen — longtime local and the project manager for the Community Foundation’s efforts to build a co-op in Tom’s Market’s stead — said that he and his team received about 20 applications for the permanent manager position.
“The vast majority were from locals,” Jensen said.
Jensen added that the Foundation aims to have interviews completed by the end of the month, with a final selection ready to hit store’s tiles as the long-term manager of Springs Market by July 4.
That person will shadow and learn from Mabbott until the expiration of his interim position. All the while, the Foundation will continue to lay the groundwork for a potential co-op model. The nearest steps include forming a steering committee of interested community members, which will be led by Co-op Dayton.
Additionally, three community open houses are being coordinated by Co-op Dayton to build local involvement in a potential co-op model. They’re scheduled for:
• Thursday, June 25, 6 p.m. at the YS Senior Center, 227 Xenia Ave.;
• Saturday, June 27, 11 a.m., at Agraria, 131 East Dayton-Yellow Springs Road; and
• Tuesday, June 30, 1 p.m., at MVECA, 888 Dayton St.
Tom Gray in the produce section in 2015. (YS News archive photo)
A retirement, finally
In true Gray fashion, father and son duo Tom and Jeff Gray beamed with quiet humility at Tuesday’s ribbon cutting when, before the big cut was made, Mayor Steve McQueen proclaimed June 16, 2026 as official “Gray Family Day.”
The proclamation read, in part: “The Gray family has provided over 25 years of local investment and grocery leadership in the Yellow Springs community. Tom’s Market has employed hundreds of local residents, invested in local businesses and vendors, and supported Yellow Springs’ vibrant downtown community.”
(Even this reporter worked behind the deli counter for a summer in 2011.)
In speaking with the News following the ribbon cutting, Jeff Gray said he’s overcome with gratitude — namely for his fellow villagers who supported him over the last four years — and even a little grief to be passing the torch of his family’s store.
“It has been the biggest challenge of my life, and now it’s over,” Gray said.
Tom’s Market owner Jeff Gray, left, stands by his father Tom in 2022, when the younger Gray took the reins of the store. (News archive photo by Reilly Dixon)
He moved back to Yellow Springs in 2021 to take the reins from his father — a concerted attempt to give his father the retirement he sought for so many years. Tom had, after all, worked at the store for around 57 years, starting as a bag boy at Luttrell’s Market. He became owner in 2001, succeeding Bud Weaver.
But Tom’s retirement never fully happened — after taking over, the younger Gray often relied on his dad’s practical advice and sometimes even his physical help in the meat department.
By his own admission, Jeff’s not a grocer — he’s an electrician who happened to run a grocery store. What ultimately made that unlikely occupation work, he said, were his staffers.
“I brought together the best crew I could imagine having,” Gray said. “I feel comfortable and confident in their ability to continue upholding the level of service and gratitude necessary to make our local grocery store an outstanding success.”
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.