Maeve Anderson/Cornell University

Customers browse through the Cornell Orchards Store, which will close on Jan. 31.

Cornell Orchards Store to close Jan. 31

By Blaine Friedlander

January 28, 2020

The Cornell Orchards Store – long a retail outlet for the university’s apples, fresh cider and other fruit grown at the Cornell Orchards, along Route 366 – will close Jan. 31.

CORNELL ORCHARDS STORE Q&A

Jan Nyrop, the Goichman Family Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station answers questions about the Cornell Orchards Store.

Why is the Cornell Orchards Store closing? The university says the store was struggling financially for years. In what ways was the store having financial troubles, and why is the store closing now?

The store has closed because revenues did not cover expenses and this was an unsustainable model for a retail operation.

The university says the store will close for “the season.” Will it ever reopen?

We will not be re-opening an orchards store that is open throughout the week with a variety of items for sale.

An Ithaca Voice article says the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station is “exploring options for limited apple sales” after the store closes. What are ways in which the university is thinking about continuing these limited sales?

The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station is considering seasonal sales of apples during harvest and through the end of each calendar year. The hours of operation for any future sales will be more limited than the store hours have been recently.

Cornell Orchards are a living laboratory for researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ School of Integrative Plant Science. The store’s retail operations were a way of recovering costs associated with operating a research and teaching orchard. If that goal is not being achieved, retail sales should be curtailed. Limited sales with greatly reduced costs might achieve that goal.

We deeply appreciate the role Cornell Orchards Store serves in the community and many of the outreach activities that community members enjoy at the orchards and its store will continue.

For some members of the Ithaca community, this close seems sudden. Had the university been discussing closing the store for a while? Or was closing the store a recent decision that the university made after realizing that the orchards store’s agreement with the Cornell Store was coming to an end?

Operation of the store in its most recent form began about three years ago as an experiment because the store was operating at a significant deficit. The new model was designed to test whether the store could be profitable, or at least break even. Periodic reviews raised concerns that we were not meeting this objective, and an intensive review beginning about six months ago confirmed this. While closure may seem sudden to patrons and the community, we have intensely explored how we might operate the store without a very significant deficit. We were unable to do so.

What will happen to the store’s two full-time employees?

The university is helping to find other opportunities for these employees.

Beyond that date, a return of the public retail portion of the orchards is uncertain, as the operation has been struggling financially for many years. Administrators from the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station in Ithaca are exploring options for future seasonal retail apple sales.

“Our robust Cornell Orchards research and outreach operation will continue serving the public and the Cornell community, as it has for decades,” said Jan Nyrop, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, which operates the orchards.

“There will be no pause in our apple sales to wholesalers,” Nyrop said. “We are currently exploring options for limited seasonal retail apple sales to begin after harvest this year.”

The Cornell Orchards Store opened in 1952. It has two full-time staff members as well as seasonal employees; the university is helping them to find new positions on campus.

The Cornell Orchards, established in 1910, produces about 10,000 bushels (210 tons) of apples. It will remain a research and extension operation, a “living laboratory” to support about 300 students with hands-on learning opportunities, who work on 10-15 faculty research projects for apples, grapes, stone fruits and berries in support of New York state’s fruit industry.

Some examples:

Greg Peck, assistant professor of horticulture, teaches a class on orchard management and uses the orchard to develop fruit production systems that deliver long-term economic and environmental viability of commercial tree fruit.
Chris Watkins, associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and professor of horticulture, conducts research on extending the storage life of apples.
Justine Vanden Heuvel, associate professor of horticulture, teaches a class at the orchards on viticulture and conducts research on sustainable wine grape production systems in cool climates, and
Lailiang Cheng, professor of horticulture, examines fruit metabolism in apples and grapes, and how they respond to carbon and nitrogen.

Food & Agriculture