Bigger Murphy's Market also better, shoppers find

SPRING HILL -- Pauline Laverty almost perfectly fits the profile of Dan Murphy's typical customer.

She appreciates hand-cut meats and specialty foods like knishes. She is a transplant from the Northeast and accustomed to shopping in smaller stores.

"I'm from New York. Manhattan. The Big Apple," said Laverty, 57. "I'm used to going to the butcher shop and other little shops."

Murphy's Market is still small compared to supermarkets such as Publix, and tiny compared to the Wal-Mart supercenters that are grabbing an increasing share of the grocery business in the county.

But Murphy's is not nearly as small as it used to be. Three weeks ago it moved to a new location, at 3483 Mariner Blvd., with 7,600 square feet of floor space, or about three times as much as the old store. It is the largest independently owned grocery in the county.

Unlike the old store, which is next door, the new location is bright, modern-looking and spacious enough to conveniently navigate with a shopping cart.

"Everything is nice. Everything is accessible. It's clean-looking and bright," said Barney Gulotta, 60, of Spring Hill.

The new store's extra space gives owner Dan Murphy more room to display the produce -- purchased during regular trips to the Tampa produce market -- that is the foundation of his business.

But it also puts him in better position to capture customers like Laverty. He has expanded his line of Boar's Head meats and cheeses. He sells more of the pasta and prepared ethnic foods that have traditionally been a large part of his business and that many Northern transplants seek out.

But Murphy reserves his highest hopes for a venture that's entirely new for his business: a full-service butcher department.

Dom Formisano, 81, oversees the cutting operation in the back of the store and the case that displays the finished product: bright red steaks, neat ridges of ground beef and planks of spare ribs.

Formisano also makes his own sausages, using natural casings that taste better and hold the flavor of the contents better than artificial ones made of a form of cellophane.

In the 71 years since he started working in the meat business, Formisano has seen customers move away from butcher stores. Now, he said, they are returning because they can buy exactly the cut and amount of meat they want and because the product is not hidden by packaging.

"They want to see the meat they're buying," he said.

The store will also accommodate a broad range of general groceries, so more of his customers will be able to do all their shopping at Murphy's. Some of these shelves are still sparsely stocked, Murphy said, and it may take him several weeks to build up inventory.

This process has been more difficult because he has thousands of dollars tied up in a dispute with the original contractor of the new store, Stephen Eicholtz, owner of Lauren Resources Inc.

The company is also mostly responsible for construction problems that delayed the opening of the store by 14 months, Murphy said. Eicholtz said the problems were a result of a faulty design for the store and late payments from Murphy.

Murphy is upbeat despite the dispute and other growing pains, including trying to train 16 new employees.

"We're already known as the premier deli and produce market in Spring Hill," he said. "When we get up and going, we're going to be the best meat market, bar none."

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