Popular store to close in 3 weeks

Friendly Express on 40th and Locust streets -- commonly known as Uni-Mart -- will close in less than three weeks due to an expired lease. Popular among students for its convenience, low prices, and late-night hours, the mini-mart must vacate by October 31. A number of students are angry, sad, and disheartened to see Friendly Express go. "I think it's a huge loss," said College junior Michael Berens, who stops by the store "practically everyday." "It's convenient to 40th Street to have something like Wawa up here," added College junior Josh Klein. According to store employees, about 800 people, primarily students and local residents, have signed a petition to keep the store open. But Rick Denton, the district manager of Friendly Express, has said that the petition -- which was started last Tuesday by a store employee -- "is not going to change anything." He added that they will abide by the lease "even though we feel it's unjust and due to no fault of our own." In November, the Freshgrocer.com gourmet grocery store -- a key piece of the University's grand plan to change the nature of the 40th Street corridor -- will open down the street from Friendly's. Penn has a lot riding on the success of the grocery store, which is expected to carry higher prices than outlets like Friendly's Express or Brown's Thriftway. According to the University's top real estate official Tom Lussenhop, Friendly Express' replacement will not be a food market. Instead, he said, it is possible that a restaurant will fill the corner. "What we locate there will be a very convenient, student-oriented retail," Lussenhop said. But many students said that is just what they are losing. According to College senior Brett Taxin, the success and popularity of Friendly Express is "a testament itself to the fact that this is something students not only want, but something students need." Lussenhop cited Freshgrocer.com as a place that can meet student shopping needs in the future. But according to Taxin, "there's a big difference between a supermarket and a convenient store." He called a supermarket a "once-a-week-type place" and Friendly Express a place "to pick up daily necessities." Citing the store's "charismatic" workers, College junior Patrick Clyde said he thinks the absence of the mini-mart will make the street "a little less interesting." "It just seems to me like [Penn's] lost sight of what the students need," said Berens, who claimed that Friendly Express has been "serving campus needs more so than almost everything else that [the University is] recently installing." According to Uni-Mart General Counsel Amy Marshall, Uni-Mart had been subleasing the property to Friendly Express since the mini-mart reopened as a Friendly Express about two years ago. The store's lease was terminated this past January, when Uni-Mart sent a letter to the University asking to end the final five-year option on the lease. But Denton of Friendly Express claims that the lease -- and the legal right to terminate it -- was assigned to Friendly Express when it purchased the Uni-Mart location. He believes that Uni-Mart was at fault for ending the lease without notifying Friendly Express. According to Marshall, it was understood that Friendly Express was responsible for trying to renew the lease. Lussenhop declined to comment about the status of the lease negotiations.

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