Bad news for neighbors, friends and people in the neighborhood. The El Empalme supermarket, in Icod of the Wines‘the one of all life’, closed its doors yesterday after 43 years due to the retirement of its owners, as stated on the poster they put up to announce the decision.
Amparo and Jesús Manuel opened it in the year 1979. They got married in March and in June they decided to set up their own business, which until then had been a small sale attended by Olga, a cousin of his. She wanted to close it but since Amparo already had experience because she had worked in other establishments with similar characteristics, she offered the young couple to continue with the business. With just 20 and 23 years, they did not hesitate. Jesús stopped working as a waiter in a restaurant and they embarked on an adventure.
Little by little they were enlarging the store and turning it into a supermarket with everything necessary to make a purchase. Order, cleanliness, good merchandise, “because all the vegetables, fruit and delicatessen are top quality”, and customer service, “for whom we have always wanted the best”, have been the secret of its success. during these more than four decades, underlines Amparo.
El Empalme supermarket, known throughout the island
Proof of this is that they come from the south of the island and especially mention Encarna, from Arona, “who goes to Icod de los Vinos every Saturday to walk with her husband, who is a judge, and they always buy” or from Santa Cruz, because they have many clients from hospitals, since the place is a must for ambulances.
Behind the premises there is a small house in which their two children, Noel and Nuria, were born. There they snacked and spent hours while their parents worked.
Amparo, a native of the Genovés neighborhood in Garachico, starts very early, at 06:30 in the morning, and an hour later she is already making the sandwiches that are later picked up by firefighters, truck drivers, civil guards and teachers. “If there is time, they have breakfast and if not, we continue”, she points out.
They have hundreds of anecdotes to tell during these 43 years of dreams and efforts, but they remember one in particular. “It was in 2005, during the tropical storm Delta, two tourists, a French girl and a German boy, came to the supermarket and asked us if they could stay in a corner for the night because they were staying in Chío, in the South, and they were very afraid,” says Amparo.
The couple decided to take them to their house, they prepared a room for him, they had dinner together “with the wind at its worst” and the two visitors stayed there to sleep. The next morning, the couple went to work and their guests to get a bouquet of flowers that they took to the supermarket as a sign of thanks.
With love that they have received and receive from people, it was not easy for them to make the decision to close the business. She is 63 and the “boss” as she calls her husband, is turning 66. “We have already done enough, we have been working for 51 years, we have been through pandemics and wars and we want to rest and enjoy our children and our grandson”, the woman is justified .
They have been saying goodbye to the clientele for more than a week but yesterday they did it with special intensity, between tears and laughter and gifts. They have special words for their loyalty for so many years because thanks to them they were “on their feet all this time” despite the fact that there are two large supermarket chains and greengrocers within walking distance. “And we have lived,” emphasizes Amparo.
