“There are no plans at this time to return our Walmart stores to 24-hour-a-day operations,” Walmart spokesperson Charles Crowson told USA TODAY in an Aug. Walmart has not recently announced changes to its store hours I don’t think I could have done what I’ve done anywhere else.'No plans' to return to 24-hour Walmart stores “When I came to Naples there were 5,000 people in town, and log cabins along the bay. Now, he said, “the area has come up 70 or 80 percent,” with upscale developments such as Windstar on Naples Bay, the Naples Botanical Garden, and Hamilton Harbor Yacht Club as his neighbors. “I used to have two people all the time – a clerk, and a guy with a machine gun. “Back then, the area had the reputation that was where you went to get prostitutes or drugs,” he said. We make a half pound ground chuck hamburger, and a quarter pound hot dog.”ĭel has seen a lot of change around his store, since the days when Bayshore Drive was called Kelly Road. And while the menu is limited at the snackbar, Massey said, “we have the best hamburgers in town. The next best seller? Frozen bait shrimp. With all the items they sell, the consistent best seller, said Del, is bait shrimp. The Bayshore Drive store is the last outpost of an empire of establishments that have included additional grocery and convenience stores, paint stores, laundromats, and the pawnshop across from the airport entrance on Airport Road, along with the real estate he owns, and a business he runs with Theresa providing financing.ĭel’s 24-Hour Store is sort of a mashup of modern convenience store with an old-fashioned general store, with a lunch counter thrown in. “Without her, I’d be in assisted living.” Del’s former wife Nancy died of cancer three years before the wedding. “And actually, he prayed the same thing I prayed,” she said, adding that she had prayed to find someone to love. “He was by himself for almost three years, and I was by myself for almost three years,” Parent said. “We raised $11,000 for the church,” said Ackerman, “and fed 400 people at the reception.” The marriage was the second for both Del and Theresa. “The 24 Hour Del is getting married to Theresa Parent,” read the glossy sheet, and “all wedding gifts (donations) will go to the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ,” located on County Barn Road. The whole town, or for that matter the whole world, was invited to join the couple’s nuptials as they sealed their union. 24 last year, to “go big.” If you flipped over the Del’s 24-HR Store sale flyer that came in your Naples Daily News that week, there was your wedding invitation. So it was second nature for him, on the occasion of his wedding to Theresa Parent on Oct. Once a promoter, always a promoter, and Del Ackerman is a showman extraordinaire. He tools around town in a flamboyant Chevy pickup, red with white blazes, emblazoned with his picture and store name, and patriotic slogans including “God bless our troops and veterans” and “Navy SEALs 2 – Bin Laden 0.” Now, I give away more money than I spend.” “People say I’m money-hungry, but I remember the days when I didn’t have any money. “In 14 years, I’ve sold close to half a million subscriptions,” he said. I just walk around being the boss.”īut Del, in addition to being the boss, and getting involved in a variety of charitable causes, still sits at numerous events, or in front of his store, selling Naples Daily News subscriptions one by one, despite having a net worth in the neighborhood of $10 million. Clift runs the store and Theresa does the books. “My legs and back are going, and my kidneys, and my left hand is gone,” he said, holding it out to demonstrate the tremors. An octogenarian, having turned 80 on July 30, Del is slowing down a little, and turning over the day to day management of his store and related business ventures to his new wife, Theresa, and Clift Massey, the general manager of Del’s 24-Hour Store.
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