To quote Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” — “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
In the last couple weeks, two of Morgantown’s locally owned institutions closed their doors: Ruby & Ketchy’s after 66 years in business, and Sellaro’s Overhead Door Service after 38.
Ruby & Ketchy’s was a family-owned restaurant in Cheat Lake named for its original proprietors: Ruby Nicholson ran the kitchen, whipping up meals and desserts using her own recipes, and her husband Wilbur “Ketchy” gathered her ingredients from local markets and butchers. The business long outlived its namesakes, who passed away in the 1990s, continuing to serve generations of families for decades more. The current owners, however, have sold the diner, and it’s unclear when or in what form the restaurant may reopen. After more than 60 years, Ruby & Ketchy’s as we know it served its last meals July 26.
Sellaro’s quietly operated out of Star City, primarily serving commercial customers throughout the region. The business was owned and run by three brothers — Anthony, John and James — until this summer. All in their 60s, the brothers were ready for retirement, but they couldn’t find anyone to take over the business. After nearly four decades, Sellaro’s is no more.
It’s a somber reminder of how the family-owned businesses in the centers of our communities can be there one day and gone the next — and a reminder not to take them for granted.
We often promote shopping local, and this is why: Local businesses owned by local people can’t survive without our patronage.
Chain restaurants and big box stores can survive without us, but our local shops and restaurants can’t stay afloat unless we actively support them. Yes, sometimes that means paying a little bit more for a product or a meal, understanding that the money spent goes straight back into the local economy.
But support doesn’t have to be just spending money there (though that’s definitely a big part of it). It can be liking, commenting on or sharing their social media posts, so the algorithm will showcase the business to more people. It can be promoting the business through word of mouth — telling friends, family, even strangers about your favorite local stores and restaurants. Personal recommendations still carry a lot of weight with people, especially for visitors hearing good things from people who live and work in the community.
This may also be a good time to remember that West Virginia is considered one of the best states in which to start a business. For the entrepreneurial minded, there are a variety of resources and government programs to help launch new ventures — or maybe to step in and take over existing ones, in lieu of letting them close.
If we want local businesses — the family-owned shops and restaurants that become generational institutions — to remain at the hearts of our communities, we have to consciously support them. If we take for granted that they’ll always be there, we won’t realize how important and special they were until suddenly they’re gone.
