Small-town grocers change to compete

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BY CARA PESEK/ Lincoln Journal Star

Two years ago, John and Amy Korte bought Food Mesto, the grocery store in Wilber.

Amy had been working there for a dozen years, learning the ins and outs of running a grocery store. John was working at the Square D plant in Lincoln, until the company cut its work force and he found himself without a job. 

So when the couple learned that Mesto’s owner was planning to sell, buying just seemed like the right thing to do, John said.

A year later, Wal-Mart announced plans to build a superstore in Crete, 13 miles away.

The Kortes weren’t exactly surprised by the news, though they hadn’t expected their little store to compete with the Arkansas-based giant quite so quickly.

“We kind of knew in the back of our minds it was coming,” John Korte said. 

In order to stay competitive, the couple has made some changes to the business, which has been part of the community for decades.

They’ve added new coolers, which they’ve stocked with new convenience foods. They’ve started selling alcohol. They bought a new sign, and repainted inside. They’ve added a few non-food items -- hangars, coffee carafes, and other things you can’t buy elsewhere in Wilber -- that they hope will keep people from driving to the new Wal-Mart when it opens this summer.  

A lot of those changes probably would have come eventually, John said. 

“We weren’t sitting back before, but (Wal-Mart) pushed us a lot quicker,” he said.

And for good reason.

“Stores close when Wal-Mart comes to town,” said Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association.

In her 15 years with the organization, Siefken has seen the number of independently owned grocery stores in Nebraska drop from 1,200 to about 600.

Wal-Mart has had a lot to do with that, she said. Shrinking populations in many small towns have contributed, too.

When these small stores close, more than just their owners suffer, she said.  

Small communities might lose a place where farmers gather for coffee in the morning. They might lose a place that donates ingredients for community soup suppers, and pop for post-prom parties.

Towns that lose their grocery stores lose people, too, Siefken said.

“When the independent retailer goes out of business, what the community loses is leadership,” she said. “The grocers in most towns are a part of the community leadership.”

That’s true for Doug Cunningham.

He was 25 when he bought the grocery store in Wausa, in northeast Nebraska. He had worked at the store starting in high school.

Cunningham continued to run the store for the next 20 years, serving in the state Legislature for several of those years.

Two years ago, he sold the store to his sister, but he’s remained close to his roots as a businessman in a small community.

He’s director of the Hometown Merchants Association of Nebraska, which aims to help smaller, independent businesses to remain vital.

Small businesses need each other, he said. Someone might stop by the local grocery store to pick up some milk, and then stop in the drugstore next door.

He said a community’s school, its bank and its grocery store are particularly important.

“If you don’t have a minimum of those things, it’s pretty hard to compete with other communities to bring economic development into your community,” he said.

Plus it’s inconvenient to drive to another town 10 or 15 miles away just to pick up some hamburger for dinner.

The choice, he said, becomes make a special trip, or do without.

“It is devastating to a community to lose a grocery store.”

 But Siefken said some communities don’t realize that until their grocery store is gone.

Kelly Theis of Western has noticed that, too.

She and her husband, Scott Theis, bought KT’s Market eight years ago, in part because they didn’t want to see the local grocery  store close. Since then, nearby Swanton and Tobias have lost their stores.

Sometimes, Theis said, she gets customers from those communities. They often remark how they miss their stores, she said. They tell her it’s nice that Western has been able to hang on to its store.

She wishes those people would tell that to her other customers. Some are good about supporting their local store, she said. But others just use it to pick up things in a pinch.

They’d miss the store if it was gone, she said.

So would the other businesses.

“That’s one less reason for people to come into town,” she said.

In Western, the grocery store fills many roles. Men have coffee there in the morning. The Girl Scouts have cookie sales from the Formica-topped table by the pop coolers. During the summer months, Western residents with too many tomatoes or zucchini have been known to drop off their excess produce at the store, in hopes that someone else will find use for it, Theis said.

“It’s family-oriented,” Theis said of her business.

Since she and her husband bought the business, Western’s population has declined. Some of Theis’ best customers -- mostly older residents -- have died or are in nursing homes now.

She’s had to be creative to keep people coming in.

Western doesn’t have a fast-food restaurant, so she started selling sandwiches at lunchtime. She does movie rentals and sells flowers and balloons. She makes deliveries, and, even though the store was technically closed on Easter, she opened it up three different times for customers who noticed they were short on ingredients as they prepared Easter dinner.

“You just do that,” she said.

In Wilber, the Kortes have been known to open the store up late at night in case of emergencies, too.

They carry specialty ingredients for kolache and other Czech foods and carry nice meats. John Korte said he’s had customers come all the way from Beatrice -- which has a Wal-Mart Supercenter -- for his steaks.

Cunningham said things like that are what keep smaller stores competitive. Good produce and meat are especially important, he said. Customer service -- carrying out groceries, making deliveries, and ordering special items if customers ask for them -- are important, too, he said.

John Korte said Wilber is lucky: by and large, the people who live there support their local businesses. And they seem to like shopping among people they know.

“There’s a lot of talking going on in the aisles,” he said.

It’s hard telling what will happen when the Crete Wal-Mart opens, he said. He expects his business will feel it, especially in the beginning.

“Long-term, I’m not sure,” he said.

Siefken, with the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, agrees with Korte.

Still, she said, she’s optimistic about the future of independent grocery stores. 

“I’m hoping people will realize what they have when they have a grocery store in their own home town,” she said.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.