After 34 years as a presence in downtown Mathews, Best Value Supermarket is closing its doors. Owner Sterling Hudgins said there’s no firm deadline for the closure, but he expects it won’t be long. 

Hudgins said when people got wind of the decision to close the store, they came in over the weekend to buy the meat before the closing sale even started. He has now reduced the price of everything by 25 percent, and items are going fast.

There was very little meat left on the shelves on Tuesday morning, and much of the bread was gone. All of the salt for water softeners had been sold, said Hudgins, and other items had been depleted, as well. When the cost of keeping personnel exceeds the value of the product being sold, he said, he’ll donate whatever remains.

“The way it’s going, by week’s end probably,” he said.

Some people have been understanding about the closure while others are upset, said Hudgins, but it was a decision he felt he had ...