Shopping carts, bakery equipment among items from shuttered Blue Goose Market being auctioned off

The contents of the now-closed Blue Goose Market in St. Charles are up for auction while the future of the property remains up in the air.

Bakery and deli equipment, frozen food doors, as well as shopping carts and baskets are among the more than 1,100 individual items that are part of the auction.

Blue Goose closed its doors in March after being in business for more than 90 years.

“We have to liquidate equipment to do the best we can to take care of Blue Goose creditors, which is a normal process,” Blue Goose Market President and CEO Paul Lencioni said Aug. 19. “It’s not associated with how the property may develop.”

Grafe Auction is conducting the online auction at its website, grafeauction.com. The public can preview and inspect items from 3 to 6 p.m. Aug. 29.

The auction will close at 9 a.m. Aug. 30. Questions may be directed to Ben Grafe at 507-273-3507.

Grafe Auction also headed up an online auction of thousands of items from Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles after the iconic resort closed its doors in March 2020 following a failed attempt to auction the resort. Pheasant Run Resort had first opened in February 1963 and was annexed by the city in 1965.

Lencioni said a number of factors contributed to Blue Goose Market’s closing, including the pandemic and supply chain issues. Like other businesses across the nation, Blue Goose was experiencing an employee shortage.

In 1928, Annunciata “Nancy” Lencioni, Paul Lencioni’s great-grandmother, opened the Blue Goose Fruit Market. Blue Goose had been at different locations around the city and moved to its most recent location at 300 S. Second St. in downtown St. Charles in 2008.

Lencioni, who was elected to the St. Charles City Council last year, wants to preserve some of the store’s history.

“We’re looking to donate the goose sculpture from the top of the building to the St. Charles Park District,” he said. “That’s something that can endure.”

While talks are ongoing, Lencioni said he hopes the building will remain a grocery store.

“It is my greatest wish that the property stays a supermarket and I’ve been working very hard to make sure that happens,” Lencioni said. “There are some things happening that I’m very excited about, but I cannot yet talk about.”

Source: The Daily Chronicle