UNADILLA, Ga. — In Unadilla -- population: 2,800 -- the shopping options are few,
and now there's one less. There's currently no working grocery store.
Tony Stubbs is born and raised in Unadilla. He says he remembers having three or four grocery store options. Now, he has none.
"You only have a Dollar General. They have meats up there, but it don't be what you're looking for. It's not the same as going to a grocery store," Stubbs said.
Back in September 2021, state inspectors shut down the Piggly Wiggly due to health code violations. Managers blamed most of the problems due to the refrigerators. The store opened back up in October 2021 until it closed again in November 2022, due to change in management.
"Back-and-forth opening and closing, opening and closing," Stubbs said.
Stubbs and his partner Valerie West both have disabilities.
The closest stores are Vienna and Perry, both 15 to 20 minutes away.
"By the time you get to the grocery store you're going to, there goes your grocery money right there, most of it. Somebody has to come take us out of town to get groceries," he said.
"That's more money you got to pay because the further you go, the more you got to pay them," West said, making the couple pay twice as much when factoring in the cost of gas.
"It hurts my wallet. I'm on a fixed income. I can't just afford to go out like this all the time while you got a whole plaza sitting up there, while ain't nothing up there," Stubbs said.
Even though the couple has family willing to help them out, their options are still very limited with just convenience stores close by.
"That's what we had, pizza, because we couldn't get nothing nowhere else," West said.
"We get tired of getting takeout and small things. We want to eat food off the stove," Stubbs said.
Stubbs hopes that once the Piggly Wiggly reopens, it gets better management.
According to one of the Piggly Wiggly's new owners, Raj Patel, the store can't reopen until a new cooler system comes in. Patel says he's not sure when that will be.