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Have no fear, famed oranges still here

A U.S. 19 and Belleair Road store isn't closing; it's just sprucing up.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published September 27, 2006

After the signs outside the old citrus-packing plant came down last week, some passers-by wondered if it was the end of an era.

Citrus Country Groves workers asked store manager April Groth if they still had a job.

The teller at the bank even assumed the store at Belleair Road and U.S. 19 had closed, she said.

"People are freaking out, thinking it's not Citrus Country anymore," said Groth, 46, who worked for the shop's predecessor, Orange Blossom Groves, since 1978.

Although the oranges are packed for holiday shipment someplace else, the fresh-squeezed juice stand and kitschy gift shop will live on, managers say.

Customers will still be able to get orange juice samples - free for the first cup, 10 cents per cup after that - soft-serve orange ice cream and touristy gift items when the seasonal store opens next month.

The signs were merely removed to paint the outside of the store, which plans to open Oct. 23, Groth said. And that's just part of a larger renovation at the store, which is in unincorporated Pinellas between Largo and Clearwater.

Allison "Al" Repetto, who founded Orange Blossom Groves in 1946, said he hadn't done any major renovations in years.

But Repetto, who opened the Largo area shop a few years after he started a Seminole store, said he tore down the store and rebuilt it quite a few times.

"When I came along, from Seminole to Palm Harbor, there wasn't anything but groves," he said.

But over the years, the citrus industry dwindled in Pinellas.

"They're about the last groves in the county," Repetto, 82, said of the remaining acres of citrus behind each of the stores.

Last year, he closed his shops in Seminole and Largo, and Pasco-based Citrus Country Groves moved into his Largo location. He still owns the land at both sites and maintained his office at the Largo shop.

Repetto has said he closed his stores because the business was not as profitable as it once was. He also said an outbreak of canker convinced him it was time as well.

Repetto, who lives in Seminole, raises cows on land he owns south of Ruskin. He often stops by his office at Citrus Country Groves after he feeds the cows, but he doesn't have a role in the Citrus Country Groves business, he said.

"It's kind of bad to walk off and leave it," Repetto said. "I kind of miss it."

Since Citrus Country Groves took over, the store has done pretty well, especially toward the end of the season last year, said company spokesman Joe Kennedy.

"It's good to see so many people driving up and down U.S. 19 that are still there for the citrus industry," he said.

When the store opens next month, the shelves will still be lined with traditional items like Orange Blossom perfume and orange marmalade, as well as new Florida-made wines in flavors like orange, key lime and mango.

And, renovation or no renovation, it will continue to feature the tacky mainstays of roadside Florida, including technicolor postcards and a quirky chocolate candy called Gator Poop.

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or lorri@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 22:34:06]