Simmons Center Market rolls out the holiday spread with décor, gifts, garden delights and its always-available fresh-cut meats and local products
Written by Kristen Hamsphire | Photography by Jill Jasuta
“It’s not Christmas until I come to Simmons,” say many locals who feel like family when they shop Simmons Center Market in Cambridge. Visitors make an annual pilgrimage during the holidays to experience the gift shop brimming with wooden crates of globe ornaments in traditional colors, some bedecked with silver and gold, expansive displays of handmade wreaths, old-timey candies to fill stockings and rows of jolly red poinsettias that form a floral runway through the greenhouse.
On December 7, Simmons Center Market will host its annual holiday open house from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., complete with new product sampling stations. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there, gussied up for photos in a vintage sleigh that Simmons founders James and Libby Simmons kept at the shop.
Hot chocolate, live music and goodies to take home are a given.
Owner Ricky Travers, whose grandparents opened the market’s doors in 1937, says “It’s not the same stuff you find at mass merchandisers” of the gifts, keepsakes and goods sold there. The store works with about three dozen different Amish families in Lancaster County, PA, who handcraft American-made wooden toys, bird houses, Santa Claus and reindeer décor, along with jellies, cheeses and other delicacies.
Stacked tall on display are thoughtfully packaged gift baskets galore, some with take-and-make combinations of fresh produce and local meat and others featuring enticing hard-to-find candy variety arrangements.
“It’s always a very special time around here,” says Ricky, reminiscing on Simmons Center Market’s four generations of Christmas.
Locally Sourced Legacy
Simmons was the first full-service grocery store south of Wilmington when Ricky’s grandfather opened it in 1937 on the very same piece of property. Since then, the building has undergone several renovations and additions, expanding its offerings as time has passed.
“He had worked for another grocer in town and decided to go out on his own,” says Ricky. “So he cashed in a life insurance policy for about $200, went to Baltimore on a ferry and got some equipment and stock.”
The whole idea of self-service was a novelty at a time when you went to the butcher, asked for specific cuts of beef or a whole chicken, and usually got charged for the cleaning. James Simmons came up with a jingle to capture his uncommon customer service approach: “If you buy your chicken from me, I’ll clean it for free.”
PARADE OF EXCITEMENT Santa and Mrs. Claus, hot chocolate, live music and more are in store at the Simmons Annual Open House on December 7.
Cellophane was also brand-new on the scene in the 1930s. “My grandfather was very much a forward-thinker,” says Ricky, relating that James was one of the first to start prepackaging cuts of meat, ground beef, poultry cuts and other butcher items in cellophane so customers could simply grab and go.
“This allowed people to buy just in ‘parts’ from a case,” Travers relates.
Grocery carts were another newfangled convenience that many men initially backed away from, Ricky laughs, because it looked too much like pushing a baby carriage. The shop still has a few of its earliest carts—one wooden and one vintage metal model are on display.
Simmons Center Market is a comprehensive store with an enticing array of groceries, meat, produce, greenhouse goods and gifts. At the same time, its rich legacy serves as a nod to living life in a simpler, more wholesome way.
Ricky notes that the store has come full circle in its time.
“Nowadays, people want to talk to the butcher,” he says. “When my grandfather started it, he had a meat counter and he would cut up the beef however people wanted it. Then it transitioned into a market where you could buy packages all done up. In today’s world, so many people want to know about their food, where it came from, how it was handled and how it was processed.”
Simmons Center Market deals directly with local farmers and USDA-certified facilities. “We are pulling about one cattle a week. We bring it in quarters and butcher it like they used to,” Ricky explains.
When sourcing from large cattle farms, you never know how long meat has been waiting in a warehouse, he points out. At Simmons Center Market, fresh meat is sold at most only a few days after processing.
Local dairy, bakery items, produce and an array of fresh products stock shelves that tell stories of four family generations, each tending to the market with care to do right by their customers.
In fact, nothing has changed except the faces that run the
market and help out—the family continues adding homegrown
staff to the mix.
FAMILY FOCUSED The Travers family, complete with grandkids, make the market a festive, happy place to shop year-round.
Today, this includes Ricky and his wife, Rosi Travers, and Travers’ mom, Joan, now in her late eighties and still a presence several days a week.
Involved daily are the Travers boys: Rick Jr., Ryan, Rob and Randy, their spouses and Travers’ sister, Lollie. “At any given time, you can find some of the 11 grandkids here helping out—they’re on the younger side, but they want to be part of it,” Ricky says.
‘Tis the Season
At this time of year, Simmons offers a heavy helping of Christmas and festive energy that makes the market a happy place to shop and discover off-the-beaten-path gifts.
“We carry a vast selection of artificial flowers and live arrangements for Christmas, including graveside pieces, wreaths and plants like poinsettias, Christmas cactus, garland and live wreaths,” Ricky says of the greenhouse variety.
He and Rosi buy for the gift shop, where 80 percent of products are made in the U.S.A. The candies are always a draw. “We buy in bulk and stock our cases with over 40 different kinds of old-fashioned candies like gum drops, peanut brittle, chocolate drops and all the hard candies you’d put in a candy dish to set out for guests,” says Ricky.
Simmons is known for its gift baskets, compiled and wrapped with care, topped with generous bows and themed to suit all kinds of gift-giving occasions. For example, a smoker basket features a variety of meat cuts and is a great gift for grill-ready friends and family.
“We do baskets of fruit, snacks, candies, plus dinner baskets that you can buy based on how many people, from two to many more. And you can add a dessert or cheese to go with it,” he says. But you don’t need a special occasion to take home a dinner basket as these are available year-round. “We introduced dinner baskets for Valentine’s Day—and now they are always here,” Ricky says.
Indeed, ‘tis always the season at Simmons, and especially during the holidays when the warmth of family and connections seems to say, “It’s not Christmas until we go to Simmons.”