Variety Abounds at Jiffy Market Wine and Deli

Vintage store spans three generations of family.Jiffy Market has evolved from convenience store to popular wine shopByline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

In recent years, trendy, local bottle markets and upscale delicatessens have proliferated and reinvented themselves all over Eugene, but not much has changed at Jiffy Market.

Take the name, for starters. It goes back to the very beginning, 42 years ago, when a pair of local businessmen opened a neighborhood market at Hilyard Street and 34th Avenue in Eugene.

A year later, Bertha “Bert” and Ed Robertson bought the business and kept the name, running it as a mom and pop grocery for the next 20-some years.

Today, Jiffy Market burbles along under the gentle command of brothers Joe and Tom Robertson, who tend to shrug when asked questions about what changes might lie ahead for the neighborhood institution. They hope to build a cover for the deck sometime soon, but other than that, there’s not much on the horizon, they say.

“We’ve thought about changing the name, but it’s just been there so long,” says Joe Robertson, 57, who’s had a hand in the business for 35 years and took over when his parents bowed out in the early 1980s.

Jiffy Market underwent a true metamorphosis in 1985, when the brothers gutted the building, reduced the square footage and reopened with a delicatessen and a new emphasis on wine.

“That seemed to be the direction things were going,” Tom Robertson recalls. “Wine was becoming very popular.”

Today, they stock about 1,300 labels, with an emphasis on good value for the dollar. They also hold regular wine tastings and offer classes for would-be wine connoisseurs. (Of course, you can still find all the convenience-store essentials, such as milk, batteries, laundry detergent, toilet paper and canned soup.)

With 16 employees, the brothers are able to delegate tasks and responsibilities in a way their parents could only have dreamed of when they bought the business.

“When they first started, they probably worked all the shifts themselves,” from early morning to late at night, seven days a week, says Tom Robertson.

For Tom and Joe, 50-hour workweeks are more typical, and they even manage to carve out time for the odd vacation. Most days, Joe works the early shift, starting at 6 a.m. and heading home around 3 p.m.; Tom comes in around 10 a.m. and leaves around 6 p.m.

Tom, who took his first wine class in the mid-1980s, presides over the Friday night wine tastings, which resumed on Oct. 1.

“We don’t do it in the summer – that’s beer drinking weather,” he says.

He also teaches the wine appreciation classes, which began Oct. 11 and cost $80. Both the tastings and the classes are held in a separate room adjoining the 2,500-square-foot store.

“It’s mainly for the beginner,” says Tom Robertson, 53. “You learn how to use your nose, how to use your tongue, how to use a wine glass, how to use a corkscrew, how to differentiate between different components of wine, everything to do with sensory evaluation. It’s a pretty humorous kind of a class. We have a lot of fun.”

Jiffy Market’s clientele is intensely local, and intensely loyal. About 95 percent of customers either work, live or attend school in the area, and visit the store regularly, Tom Robertson says.

“A lot of the people who come in here have been coming in for 20, 30 years,” Tom says.

Both men say it is the customers who have kept them in this family business so long.

“They let us abuse them every day and they keep coming back,” jokes Tom Robertson.

In the past, Jiffy Market has leased space to independent eateries, including Tasty Thai Kitchen. The brothers say they’d consider another such partnership if the right one came along, but that for the time being the delicatessen handles breakfast, lunch and dinner quite nicely.

There’s nothing fancy about Jiffy’s deli. It’s standard American fare – bacon and eggs, sandwiches, cheeseburgers, fish and chips, burritos, soups and salads.

Joe’s 25-year-old daughter, Kelly, has managed the deli for four years. While she’s not planning to make a career of it, she likes working alongside her relatives.

“Of course, there’s more expected of you when it’s a family business, plus you care about it probably more than you would otherwise,” said Kelly, who’s considering colleges and may pursue a teaching career.

Kelly’s brother, 27-year-old Matt, has worked the counter off and on over the years, and cousin Brooks, 14, is a box boy when he’s not in school or traveling around the country. Brooks, Tom’s son, is an acclaimed finger-style guitarist who last spring won a nationwide talent contest on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” radio show.

While not all siblings could work closely together in harmony, the brothers say conflicts are rare and generally mild.

“I think the main things is just trying to share the same vision on things, so there’s some compromising,” says Tom Robertson, who went to college and worked as a musician and potter before joining his brother at Jiffy Market in the early 1980s.

Like many small businesses, Jiffy Market felt the recession of several years ago, and is still feeling the aftermath.

“We used to sell a lot more high-end cases” of wine, Tom Robertson says. “People have gotten more conservative.”

But the brothers don’t seem too concerned about competition from other bottle markets or places such as Trader Joe’s, with its popular bargain wines.

Says Joe Robertson: “I think people are trying to support these kinds of neighborhood markets again.”

Quoting this article by Anne Williams at The Register-Guard

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1807988/Vintage-store-spans-three-generations.html-page.html

$8,000 Tax Credit for First Time Buyers!

There hasn’t been a better time to buy real estate than now! With sales prices where they were at in 1998, motivated sellers and all kinds of inventory, 2009 is shaping up to be a historically phenomenal time to purchase a home. AND just when we thought things couldn’t get better for buyers, they just did. Now first time home buyers(or buyers who haven’t owned a home in the last 3 yrs), will receive a $8,000 tax credit for the 2009 tax season, if they purchase before December 31st.

Here’s a snippet from the CNN/Money article with a link to the full article below:

Final Score: $8,000 for Homebuyers

First-time purchasers get a tax credit windfall if they buy before December.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — There’s a nice windfall for some homebuyers in the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Obama’s signature on Tuesday. First-time buyers can claim a credit worth $8,000 – or 10% of the home’s value, whichever is less – on their 2008 or 2009 taxes.

A big plus is that the credit is refundable, meaning tax filers see a refund of the full $8,000 even if their total tax bill – the amount of withholding they paid during the year plus anything extra they had to pony up when they filed their returns – was less than that amount. But there has been a lot of confusion over this provision. Adam Billings of Knoxville , Tenn. wrote to CNNMoney.com asking:

“I will qualify as a first-time home buyer, and I am currently set to get a small tax refund for 2008. Does that mean if I purchased now that I would get an extra $8,000 added on top of my current refund?”

The short answer? Yes, Billings would get back the $8,000 plus what he’d overpaid. The long answer? It depends. Here are three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Your final tax liability is normally $6,000. You’ve had taxes withheld from every paycheck and at the end of the year you’ve paid Uncle Sam $6,000. Since you’ve already paid him all you owe, you get the entire $8,000 tax credit as a refund check.

Scenario 2: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve overpaid by $1,000 through your payroll withholding. Normally you would get a $1,000 refund check. In this scenario, you get $9,000, the $8,000 credit plus the $1,000 you overpaid.

Scenario 3: Your final tax liability is $6,000, but you’ve underpaid through your payroll withholding by $1,000. Normally, you would have to write the IRS a $1,000 check. This time, the first $1,000 of the tax credit pays your bill, and you get the remaining $7,000 as a refund.

To qualify for the credit, the purchase must be made between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009. Buyers may not have owned a home for the past three years to qualify as “first time” buyer. They must also live in the house for at least three years, or they will be obligated to pay back the credit.

Additionally, there are income restrictions: To qualify, buyers must make less than $75,000 for singles or $150,000 for couples. (Higher-income buyers may receive a partial credit.)

Applying for the credit will be easy – or at least as easy as doing your income taxes. Just claim it on your return. No other forms or papers have to be filed. Taxpayers who have already completed their returns can file amended returns for 2008 to claim the credit.

This article is quoted from CNN Money

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/13/real_estate/homebuyer_tax_credit_finalized/index.htm

The Beginning!

Welcome and thank you for visiting us, our first post of our Eugene Real Estate Blog! We are very excited to be joining the blog-o-sphere and add our professional expertise relating to the sights, sounds and happenings of the Eugene community and it’s out lying areas. We ‘re going to be sharing with you, not only our thoughts, tips and predications of the real estate goings on here in Eugene, but also, feature our highlights of what makes Eugene great! We’ll also look at what’s shaping the market and how that affects you. Plus, some of our favorite hot spots, hide outs and hidden gems of the Emerald City! Please be sure to check back often as we will be constantly updating! To see listings, homes, houses for sale, please click on Search All Listings Above.

« Previous Page