Ed’s Way is more than a grocery store. It’s a cornerstone of a community. It’s a meeting place for friends and neighbors. It’s a clearinghouse for announcements: apartments and parking spaces to rent, lost pets and dogs to adopt, new businesses to visit, all with bits of paper to tear off listing their phone number.
It’s a hardware store, with household necessities for sale. It’s an office supply store selling legal pads and envelopes. It’s a post office selling stamps, with a mailbox outside. It’s a store where kids could make purchases like they were grownups.
It’s generous to charities, with collection boxes for the food pantry and other worthy organizations. It honored “Book It” winners and sponsored Little League teams. It displays their Soapbox car that raced down Circle Bridge. It’s a gathering place for selling chocolate bars and Girl Scout Cookies.
It’s been a location for filming TV shows and commercials. It’s a family business, where generations of the Nutley family worked. Ed’s daughter, Karen Hinz, has been the store’s longtime bookkeeper. Her daughter, Marissa Serio, wrote her starting date on the office wall: April 2, 1994.
It also hired family members, like John Paunovic, the store’s full-time butcher. John is the smiling face behind the counter, who accommodates special requests from customers. He also cooks rotisserie chickens for quick meals.
Ed Nutley started the store 32 years ago. After working in the grocery business at A & P, he looked for his own store to buy. He bought the White Way store from Serafini Castellano. Long-time customers were disgruntled and continued to write their checks to White Way, long after Ed took over.
Accepting personal checks made Ed’s Way special. Customers could write the check for more than the purchase amount and receive cash back. Families flocked to Ed’s Way at dinner time and pushed their full grocery carts home to unload. During blizzards, they loaded their sleds with groceries.
The store was well-stocked with Certified items, until Certified was replaced by Centrella. After Centrella went bankrupt, Ed’s Way evolved into a “convenience” store. Customers were running in for a gallon of milk or a lottery ticket.
The store simply couldn’t compete with giants like Jewel, Mariano’s and Walmart. So, Ed and Mike made the painful decision to close. The village made sure Ed’s Way was not forgotten.
“When the village wanted to honor me by renaming Beloit “Honorary Ed Nutley Way,” it made me happy,” he said. “The outpouring of love, appreciation and gratitude I received that day really lifted my spirits.”
The store’s many loyal customers are sad to see it go, but happy that Ed gets a long-deserved retirement.
“Mike and I would like to say thank you for always being there for us, the mayor, commissioners, the village, Community Center, Park District, Forest Park National Bank and St. Bernardine’s – where I go to make everything right.”
“I loved what I was doing for the last 32 years here. I have made so many friends over the years. Ed’s Way was a first job for a lot of kids in town — they were happy to get their first paycheck! We still keep in contact with many of them to this day. It is so true that everyone has an Ed’s Way story, and it’s been great to hear them the last few weeks.”
But, soon, they’ll hit the lights for the last time.
“On my last night at Ed’s Way, after turning off the lights and locking the door for the last time, I’m going home, put on a Dean Martin record, open a Bud Light and have a toast for the good times we had.”
Because they were good. And like the King of Cool, we hope Ed doesn’t mind being a legend.
