7 Day Junior has opened a new location on West Main Street, replacing the Carytown Tobacco store which previously occupied the lot. The owners of the West Main Street Carytown Tobacco sold the location to 7 Day Junior earlier this month and, after a brief move-in period, the store is now open for business.
According to Hiren “Harry” Patel, store owner and 7 Day Junior business partner, the West Main Street location will focus mainly on providing nutrition and hydration to students commuting to Grounds from areas around the Corner. He said that the decision to open the new location was primarily based on seeing a need for easily accessible drinks and snacks in that segment of the Corner.
“There is no place here on the street to [buy water and hydrate],” Patel said. “[Students] have [to walk] all the way back to my store [on 14th street] or some other stores.”
The new West Main Street location is the third 7 Day Junior location owned and operated by Patel. The other two locations are located on 14th Street and 10th Street respectively. Patel does not own the 7 Day Junior Food Mart located on University Avenue next to Bodo’s Bagels.
While the 14th Street location also sells drinks and snacks to customers and is a mere 2 minute walk from the new store, Patel felt that that location was out of the way for many commuters. He said he hopes that opening a location on West Main Street would be more accessible and easier to stop at as students walk to Grounds.
The new location is on the way to Grounds for students living in student apartment complexes located further down University Avenue such as The Standard at Charlottesville, The Flats at West Village and Lark on Main. Students walking towards the Lawn from these locations will directly pass the new store, rather than needing to take a slight detour down 14th Street to the other 7 Day Junior location nearby.
Patel said he hopes to stock the new location with protein bars, fresh sandwiches and other healthy snacks that students can grab as breakfast or lunch options on their way to class. He also said he plans to add coffee and slurpee machines to satisfy drink cravings in all weather conditions.
“We’re going to open really early,” Patel said. “When people are going to the class at eight they can have a sandwich and hydration.”
Second-year Engineering student Nithil Suresh said he could envision students checking out the new store, but whether or not they continue to visit would depend on what kind of food the new location offered.
“Since it's something new, people might check it out,” Suresh said. “So more people might go over there. But if it's not that good, maybe it'll go under the radar.”
Suresh also said that if the new location had food options that were quick and easy to grab he would be more enticed to continue visiting. Third-year Engineering student Natalie Yee thinks that the addition of the new location will have a positive impact on the corner. Yee thought that the new location could serve as a replacement for the Sheetz that used to be on the Corner.
“I know a lot of students really liked having that option available late at night to be able to grab food and other things,” Yee said. “And so I think having it serve food late at night will be good for students who are out and about and need something to eat.”
In accordance with the terms of the Carytown Tobacco sale, 7 Day Junior must continue to sell the leftover products previously sold by Carytown Tobacco, but Patel said he does not intend to restock those products once all of them are sold. Patel said that the new location is in the midst of a filtration process that involves selling the remainder of these products, such as vapes, which he said 7 Day Junior does not want to sell to students.
“We already took a lot of stuff from here that we don't want students to touch,” Patel said.
Nearby 7 day Junior stores do, however, carry vapes.
Carytown Tobacco is one of multiple Corner properties that have been replaced or changed ownership in recent years. Carytown Tobacco moved into the space in August 2022, replacing Juice Laundry, an organic juice and smoothie store. The 7 Day Junior store located on the Corner that is not owned by Patel moved into the space after purchasing Cohn’s, a convenience store and long-standing staple on the Corner.
Patel said that he loves connecting with students and looks for ways to provide what they need on the way to classes. To that end, he said that he is very open to expanding further if he sees another need that he could fill.
“In the future if we find a good spot and we think we can do better than the business they're doing there, we’ll definitely look into that,” Patel said.
Patel did not state a specific date by which the move-in will be complete, but said he hopes they will be done with the transition in a matter of months. Despite this ongoing move-in process, the store is currently open for business.
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