A Farewell to Johnnie's

Johnnie’s neighbors and loyal customers are gathering outside their beloved grocery store at 4 p.m. today to say goodbye to the store and, more importantly, its employees.

“The store has been a center of neighborhood life, and the employees, they are more than just employees – they’ve become friends,” wrote Arlington resident Carol Band, who lives down the street from Johnnie’s and emailed Arlington Patch about the informal get-together.

The store, along with the nine other Johnnie’s, all of which are in the Boston area, will close for good at the end of the business day on Sunday, which is at 5 p.m. in Arlington.

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What will you miss most about Johnnie’s? Let us know by posting a comment below.

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In early November, the Chelsea-based chain announced that all of its locations would be closing and liquidation sales began shortly thereafter. Prior to that announcement, in late October, the chain said that six of its locations, including the one in Arlington, would become Whole Foods.

Whole Foods is planning to remodel the buildings and hopes to reopen them in the late summer or early fall of 2013, according to an earlier press release from the Texas-based supermarket chain.

Johnnie’s Foodmaster was started by John DeJesus Sr. in East Cambridge in 1947. The chain is now run by his son, John A. DeJesus.