Slideshow The Milk Pail Market, with a recently constructed new office building behind it, at the San Antonio shopping center, in March 2018. Owner Steve Rasmussen said he's accepted a buy-out offer and will be closing the quirky, much-loved market. Voice file photo Milk Pail Market owner Steve Rasmussen talks to longtime customer Leane Reelfs about the variety of citrus he sells on March 25, 2014. Realfs says she has been going to the Milk Pail since she was 4 years old because there's nothing else like it. Photo by Michelle Le Previous Next

After 45 years in Mountain View, the popular Milk Pail Market will be closing its doors permanently. Renowned for its cheese, croissants and crowded aisles, the San Antonio grocer persevered amid intense competition with a loyal customer base, but its owner says the hardships of running a small business were becoming too great.

In a Facebook post, owner Steve Rasmussen said he had accepted a buyout for his store property at the corner of San Antonio Road and California Street and would be closing in the next few months. He did not disclose the buyer.

"The wave of development in Silicon Valley has brought many changes. It was inevitable that one day we, too, would be part of that change," Rasmussen wrote. "Although the closure of the Milk Pail will be bittersweet, we leave with fond memories and immense gratitude for the community that built us."

Explaining his decision, Rasmussen said it was becoming more challenging to maintain a business that is open year-round, especially amid tighter sales and competition. Today, there are at least five chain supermarkets within a block of the Milk Pail.

In recent years, the Milk Pail seemed to be Mountain View's version of the David and Goliath story. Beginning in 2013, Rasmussen was the lone holdout on that side of the San Antonio shopping center, refusing to sell his small corner lot even as the development firm Merlone Geier restricted the market's access to parking and rebuilt everything around it. The plucky grocer's battle with the corporate developer became a local cause celebre, drawing crowds to City Hall, demanding that the Milk Pail be saved.