Wegmans says it will close all of its Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden Centers and turn its focus completely to its grocery stores.

However, even the people who shop at Chase-Pitkin's Competitors say they don't want to see the home improvement chain go.

"I think they should stay open, because I think they do sell a good product there," Ken Thomas of Rochester said while coming out of a Home Depot nearby.

Chase-Pitkin's parent company, Wegmans, says major national chains make that impossible.

Wegmans' will close all 14 of the home and garden stores, including 10 in Rochester. It won't give an exact timetable for the local closings, which workers just found out about Tuesday.

"We are very concerned about the impact that this has on the Chase-Pitkin employees," Chase-Pitkin President Bill Strassburg said. "It is our primary concern for the transition of those employees to their new careers."

The 1,200 part-timers and 400 full-timers in Rochester could find those careers at Wegmans, which promises to interview all who are interested. Those who are not will receive a severance package.

"In the short term, this is very difficult for the Chase-Pitkin employees, for the company as a whole," Jo Natale of Wegmans said. "In the long term, we believe it is the right decision."

As for the building themselves, Wegmans has a couple of options: either lease the buildings out or convert them into more Wegmans, as is the case for the one on Mt. Read Blvd.

Still, many say they wish Chase-Pitkin could have just toughed it out.

They worry fewer choices, means more chances for monopoly.

"They've got a heck of a customer service, it's just a little pricey," Lucas Weppler of Henrietta said.

The Great Northern Chase-Pitkin store in Syracuse and the one in Big Flats in the Corning area will be the first two to close, which will happen by the end of the first quarter of 2006.