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Market pines for Games

By Lee Benson
Deseret News columnist

      MOUNTAIN GREEN—It's back to business as usual for the Old Farm Market.
      Darn it.
      For the better part of six weeks, this convenience store on the way to the Olympic and Paralympic venues at Snowbasin Ski Area had the most convenient location of all — the only place for miles around to get your beef jerky, Snicker's bars, hamburgers, jo jo fries, 99-cent egg rolls, coffee, soda pop, Chester Fried Chicken-to-go, Sinclair gasoline — and beer.
      When the Paralympics ended last weekend, there went the international trade.
      No more people coming up to Larry Heckerman at the counter, holding out their hand full of change and motioning with the universal gesture of "You count it out."
      Larry worked both the Olympics and the Paralympics and among his longest-lasting memories will be of those foreign guests thrusting their change at him.
      "I think our quarters, nickels and dimes confuse them," he says.
      He smiles and adds, "But I got the impression they knew if you were doing it right."

      The Old Farm Market stayed open 24 hours during the Olympic period instead of its usual 6 a.m.-10 p.m. schedule. There still wasn't a lot of traffic in the middle of the night, but there was always a steady stream of security personnel. Highway Patrolmen, Olympic security officers, local police and the occasional unmarked car with men in trenchcoats stopped by.
      The Old Farm's policy was free coffee for the cops — but they had to pay for their donuts.
      Coffee was a big seller throughout the Games, as were the items in the hot food case. If you can fry it, it's in there — chicken tenders, hot wings, burritos, corndogs, all under a buck a piece and no jacked-up prices during the Games. At Old Farm, you could buy an arm and a leg without it costing an arm and a leg.
      "People bought everything," says Larry.
      And the No. 1 seller?
      "Oh," says Larry, "that was beer."

      Still, Olympic business wasn't as hot as the Old Farm, which added an extra four people for the Games, expected. Larry's best guess is that the store did a third to 50 percent more business than it usually does as it takes care of people on their way to ski or board at Snowbasin or Powder Mountain or spend the day in Huntsville.
      The problem was buses. Olympic transportation was so streamlined that most people parked their cars and rode the buses. The Snowbasin bus terminal was located only about a third of a mile from the Old Farm Market but it wasn't the same as parking your car out front. Some people would walk over from the bus lot for breakfast or beef jerky or a Coke, but some wouldn't.
      Over the course of the competition, however, languages from around the world eventually found their way to this edition of an authentic American invention: the convenience store.
      On an Olympic Budweiser banner at the back of the store, a number of Olympians stopped to sign their names. There are Austrian, Norwegian, German and American names scrawled across the sign, along with some others that are unintelligible.
      "Now people come in and want to buy the banner," says Larry.
      But the Old Farm Market isn't selling. The Olympics and Paralympics are gone. All that's left are the memories and those signatures — and, for good measure, a foreign coin or two in the till.

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.