This Small Town In Kansas That Saved Its Only Grocery Store By Buying It
By Lisa Sammons|Published September 28, 2022
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Lisa Sammons
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Lisa loves animals and has dogs, rats, cats, guinea pigs, and snakes. She is passionate about animal rescue and live music - traveling across the country to see a favorite band is a pretty regular occurrence! Being out hiking in the woods enjoying the scenery with her beloved dogs is another favorite hobby, and also checking out the Pokemon Go scene in whatever city she happens to be in at any given time (coffee and dog leash in hand). You can reach Lisa at lsammons@onlyinyourstate.com
The news can feel overwhelming at times – it often seems like every story you hear about is heartbreaking and centered on violence or loss. We’ve got a heartwarming story today that will bring a smile to your face. The little town of Erie, Kansas, is quite small, with a population of around 1,500. This place feels like a step back in time to simpler days before corporations took over seemingly everything. It looked like that was all going to change recently when the town’s only local grocery store was set to close, but the town rallied together and changed all that. Check it out:
The town of Erie is a quintessential small Midwestern town where nothing seems to change. It's quiet, peaceful, and easygoing. There aren't a ton of jobs here, and many of the locals don't own cars.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses across the world, but tiny businesses in small towns were especially hard-hit. Countless locally-owned shops and restaurants all over the country have closed over the last few years.
The pandemic was especially hard on small-town grocery stores. Grocery stores have extremely thin profit margins, and issues like worker shortages and product scarcity can completely obliterate any profit a store might otherwise see.
The pandemic worsened a growing trend of small towns losing their only local grocery stores. In the summer of 2020, it looked like Erie was going to follow that route.
The town's sole grocer was the locally-owned Stub's Market, and its long-time owners wanted to retire. No one was interested in buying the business and city residents worried that this would be a death knell for their little town.
Erie is home to Dollar General, but the selection of produce and fresh foods is quite limited at the national chain. To reach a larger grocery store, a 20 to 30-mile round trip is needed. People don't want to move to towns with no grocery stores, and there was a legitimate fear that the city would die off if Stub's Market closed.
The city government polled residents to inquire if they supported the City of Erie purchasing Stub's Market. Nearly 70 percent of respondents agreed with the proposal and so the city arranged to purchase the market from its owners in 2021.
The store has been renamed Erie Market. Since the city only needs to cover costs and not worry about maximizing profits, there are hopes that product markups can be reduced to pass savings on to customers. If costs to run the grocery store begin to outweigh profits, the city will add on a small tax of a few dollars to residents' utility bills to cover the difference.
What a great story of a local grocery store in Kansas surviving despite the odds! Would you like to see more towns buy up failing grocery stores to allow residents to have greater access to fresh foods? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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