Store24, 'The only place to go after 1 a.m.'

Store24, at the corner of Dog Lane and Route 195, has brightened the faces of thousands of UConn students as they seek satisfaction for their midnight cravings. It has been a mainstay of campus life for so long that it's almost impossible to imagine a time without it.

However, Guy Lefor, a Store24 veteran of nearly seven years, remembers a time when the establishment was not the main destination for party goers and students pulling all-nighters.

According to Lefor, the only other 24-hour location he can remember was at the Dairy Mart, which was located near Huskies Restaurant & Bar.

Store24, which first opened in 1981, shared around-the-clock status with Dairy Mart for a little less than a year, Lefor said. He added that Dairy Mart's manager soon reversed the decision to stay open when the store ran into problems with the bar crowd from Huskies.

"They'd leave [Huskies], but you know, "one leg was shorter than the other," said Lefor. "They'd go in a circle, and 45 minutes later, they'd come back, Huskies would be closed, and the Dairy Mart was the only place open. The manager couldn't handle it."

These days, Store24 is "the only place to go after 1 [a.m.]" said Grace Alpert, a 4th-semester theatre studies major, because "it's just an awesome place to go in the middle of the night."

Even around 2:30 a.m., during the heart of the third shift, a wide array of people flow through the door, ranging from a UConn police officer buying a few snacks to Sachiko Komuro, a 2nd-semester costume design graduate student.

Komuro, who was working late in the graduate studio designing costumes for the upcoming show, "Pericles," said she had averaged only three hours of sleep per night for the last week, and the microwavable macaroni and cheese she purchased was going to serve as both dinner and breakfast.

With the approach of the weekend, the flow of customers into the store intensifies, said Santi Palmieri, a 19-year-old Storrs resident who works the late shift on weekends, as well as acting as assistant wrestling coach at E.O. Smith High School and modeling clothing for John Casablanca's Modeling and Career Center.

Although he admits working three jobs takes its toll, Palmieri said his "body has adjusted to it," over the eight months he has worked at the store.

On the weekends, Palmieri said he spends any downtime restocking and cleaning, but for the most part, the store is bustling with people coming in from parties, usually to purchase chips, candy, and other snack foods.

While its continuous availability and variety of goods makes Store 24 the sensible choice for satisfying those late night hunger pangs, the staff is what keeps most customers coming back for more.

Charlie Fitzgibbons, the president and CEO of Tedeschi Food Shops, Store 24's parent company, writes on the company's Web site, "Our people strive to know your name and make your visit enjoyable. We want you to feel at home in our stores and hope to make your life just a little bit easier."

Zane Roberts, a 4th-semester acting major, shares this sentiment.

"If they [the staff] don't see us for two days, they start to worry," Roberts said.

Roberts even had a fond memory of a night he spent perusing the shelves of the establishment.

"I got sexiled from my room and wandered around Store Two-Four with my pillow and blankets, buying all kinds of stuff," he said. "I put everything in my pillowcase, and this drunk guy started picking a fight with me. But Lenny [one of the staff] had by back."

The same positive attitude is shared by the staff of Store 24's companion, Subway.

Any customer entering the store last semester while Subway was having a cookie sale had the opportunity to be entertained by Brandon Lawrence, a 6th-semester animal science major who works nights.

Lawrence, in an effort to sell enough cookies to win an iTunes gift card, promised to perform a standing back flip for anyone who bought at least two cookies.

Jack Fellows, a 4th -semester acting major, remembered Lawrence's antics fondly, as did Alpert, though she expressed dismay that Subway does not share the same hours as Store 24.

Even though Subway is only open until 2 a.m. early in the week, and 3 a.m. later in the week, Lefor sees the popular sandwich stand as a beneficial part of Store 24's business.

"People come in here for Subway and end up buying other things as well," Lefor said.

Lefor, who has lived in Storrs since he came to UConn as a student in 1972, said the sharing of space in the store is not a recent idea, but the area Store 24 now occupies has been shared for as long as he can remember.

According to Lefor, the building that now houses Store 24 and Wings Over Storrs was originally built in 1950 to house shops for a large convention center UConn planned to build nearby that would have also utilized Lester E. Shippee Hall as a hotel.

In the 1950s, Store 24 was acquired by the Post Office, and it stayed in its hands until 1977, when it was briefly occupied by the Campus Restaurant before it moved back downstairs and Store 24 moved in.

Downstairs, which is now abandoned, was first home to a bowling alley, Lefor said, before the Campus Restaurant moved in during the late 1950s and covered over the lanes.

Lefor said the restaurant, which operated beneath the Post Office until the late 1970s, was "one of those ideal places writers love to find, because of the wide variety of people who come through the doors," a characteristic Store 24 still maintains.

Since it opened, Store 24 has stayed true to its name and has rarely closed.

"Rain or snow, they're there for us," said Emily Tritsch, a 4th-semester sound design technology major.

Fellows, however, said it occasionally closes for cleaning, and when it does, everyone seems to know.

"They close down every four months or so to do some cleaning, and it's a traumatizing experience," Fellows said.

But even if Store 24 occasionally strays from its promise of 24-hour service, Fellows, Alpert, Roberts and Tritsch will stay loyal to "the Two-Four."

"I don't live at Two-Four," Fellows said, "but when I'm at Two-Four, I'm living."