Rock Cave IGA closing after nearly four decades of Hawkins family ownership

Rock Cave IGA is closing permanently under its longtime family ownership, the Hawkins family announced Thursday morning, ending a nearly four-decade chapter for the southern Upshur County grocery store.

The announcement came a month after the family closed the store’s doors for what it had hoped would be a temporary restructuring.

“It is with deeply heavy hearts that we share the news that we have made the difficult decision to close Rock Cave IGA permanently under our family’s ownership,” the family wrote in a social media post. “This decision did not come easily. There have been sleepless nights, long conversations, plenty of worry, and more than a few tears.”

In the end, the family said it had to acknowledge that the struggles of running the store had become too great.

“We can no longer carry the physical, financial and emotional burden of operating a grocery store,” the announcement said.

The store is not necessarily gone for good.

“The property and business are for sale,” the family wrote. “Our greatest hope is that someone will see what we have always seen in this place. Potential. History. Community. And need.”

“Rock Cave and the surrounding area desperately need a grocery store, and we would love nothing more than to see someone with the energy, resources and dedication take this place and breathe new life into it,” the announcement continued. “Maybe this is not the end of Rock Cave’s little country store. Maybe it is simply the end of our family’s chapter in its story. We certainly hope so.”

That chapter began in 1989, when Glen and Jo Ann Hawkins purchased the little country store — known to many at the time as B&B Mart — from Don Burnside. Jo Ann managed the front end of the store, and Glen, who had retired from Kroger, took over the meat shop.

“Together, they built something,” the family wrote. “Not overnight. Not through some grand business plan. They built it the way most things were built in small communities back then: one customer, one conversation, one long workday, one pound of hamburger and one grocery bag at a time.”

Over the next 30-plus years, the store grew to serve families from a four-county area.

“It became a place where neighbors ran into neighbors, where people caught up on community news in the aisles, where somebody usually knew your name, your parents, your grandparents, and probably what you were having for supper,” the family wrote.

Then there was Glen Hawkins’ famous Ground Hog Sausage Sale.

“Every year, thousands of people came from all over West Virginia, and even from out of state, to Rock Cave for sausage,” the family wrote. “For a little country grocery store in southern Upshur County, that was something pretty special.”

In 2019, the couple’s sons, Wes and Dale, took over the store so their parents could step back and enjoy retirement. Not long afterward, Glen Hawkins suffered a devastating stroke, and he was later diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In recent years, Jo Ann, Wes and Dale have all faced health issues of their own, the family said.

The store’s final years brought business troubles as well. With the store up for sale and rumors swirling, the family addressed customers directly in December 2024.

“No, we are not closing the store. Yes, the store is up for sale,” the family wrote December 18, 2024.

A sale that had been under contract eventually collapsed, the family recounted in a post this March that leveled with customers about the store’s struggles.

“So, the IGA was for sale and under contract for what felt like an eternity,” the family wrote. “During that time, it was like watching a suspense thriller where you keep wondering, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ Spoiler alert: It didn’t end well for a while.”

“We lost sales faster than a hot knife through butter, and our inventory levels dropped so low, one Facebook comment actually suggested we looked like a Cold War fallout shelter!” the post continued. “Then, at the eleventh hour, the sale fell through, and we were left scratching our heads thinking, ‘Well, that was unexpected!’”

By late July, though, the effort had run out of road. The family announced July 29 that the store would close temporarily while it attempted to restructure and rebuild the business.

In Thursday’s announcement, the family acknowledged the weight of closing a store the community has leaned on for so long.

“When a community has depended on something for so long, you begin to feel responsible for making sure it exists forever,” the family wrote. “You wonder what people will say. You worry that people will be disappointed. You wonder whether closing the doors somehow erases all the years that came before. But we have come to understand that it does not.”

“We have had to choose our health,” the family wrote. “We have had to choose our family. And we have had to accept that sometimes loving something does not mean you are able to carry it forever. Sometimes you carry it as far as you can. Then you hope someone else is willing to pick it up.”

The announcement closed with a message from the entire Hawkins family.

“Thank you, Rock Cave,” they wrote. “Thank you for nearly four decades. Thank you for trusting our family to be your grocer, your butcher, your neighbor and your friend. Whatever happens next, Rock Cave IGA will always be part of our family story. And we will always be grateful that our family got to be part of yours.”