Community bands together after losing only grocery store

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Volunteers show up to help unload groceries and restock the shelves.
Jason Frederick/Benkelman Post

BENKELMAN, Neb. — Benkelman could be devastated by the loss of its grocery store, or citizens could be part of a positive response.

Working alongside a Benkelman business owner who feels a responsibility for her community and her people, Benkelman residents have supported a temporary grocery store by volunteering time and labor and by shopping there. They’re also now “buying time” until a new owner can restock and reopen the big grocery store on main street.

Benkelman’s only grocery store closed during the county fair, about the last of July. Other than a convenience store on the highway that offered a few grocery items, there was no place to get basic grocery staples, and the demand for milk is always astronomical.

Two of the eight-year-old Lutz triplets, Bree and Cale, pick up milk from one of the refrigerators loaned for the mini grocery story project.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

“I’ve seen this happen before. I’ve watched grocery stores struggle and close in Hitchcock and Hayes counties,” says Benkelman Post co-publisher Amy Frederick. “Losing a grocery store is almost like losing a school. It’s an automatic morale-killer for a town. It’s bad for shoppers needing groceries, of course, but it also has an instant economic impact on other businesses when shoppers change their shopping habits.”

If Benkelman residents went elsewhere to shop for their groceries, who’s to say they wouldn’t fill other shopping needs while they were there, Amy wondered.

She realized she felt a responsibility to help her community. Amy shared her philosophy: “I’ve always felt that ‘responsibility’ is two words — response and ability.” At a time of need in her community, she looked around her big newspaper office and thought, “We have the space … the shelves … We have a good location. We have the ‘ability’ to ‘respond.’ These are my people, my friends and neighbors. The decision to respond was easy.”

Ava, another Lutz triplet, bags groceries for fellow shoppers.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

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As the town’s grocery store was closing, Amy picked up a few grocery items for Benkelman residents on her trips to and from Trenton and McCook on newspaper business. While this was working and she was happy to be of assistance, she said it quickly became apparent a larger response was needed.

But it would require help. She found it first in Benkelman alumni who had returned for the county fair. “And then locals came on board, and the chamber, and then other businesses and the CRA (Community Redevelopment Authority) board,” Amy said.

Laynee Lutz, the oldest of the six Lutz kids, checks the contents of the freezer. Laynee says the mini grocery store is wonderful because, “Our family drinks a lot of milk … six gallons of milk a week.”
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

With all of the community coming together and with the help of the owner of the Country Market grocery store in Stratton, Amy and her husband and co-publisher Jason vacated the front third of their newspaper office to make room for a grocery store that was inspected, approved and licensed by the state health department.

A “mini-mart,” of sorts, Amy said.

Seven refrigerators and a freezer were donated for the tiny-sized grocery store project: The Chamber bought one, businesses loaned fridges from their businesses, a McCook radio station paid the rent on three of them. Another business donated the use of a cash register.

Just a handful of the volunteers who have helped with the grocery store are, front row, from the left: Brock Bailey, Ava Lutz, Cale Lutz, Bree Lutz, Remmy Schorzman, Easton Schorzman and Kennedy Bailey. Back row: Cheryl Glidden, Trenton Frederick, Kay Voss, Tammy Loker, Laynee Lutz, Melissa Schack, Deb Schorzman and Sally Hudson.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

“We thought we’d get 10 items — you know, milk, eggs, chips, lunch meat, bread …, “ Amy said. They had approached Eric Voss, the owner of the grocery store in Stratton, who said he's willing to work with the community of Benkelman. “Eric is very knowledgeable and has a tremendous background in groceries,” Amy said; he knew 10 items wouldn’t fill the need. “He helped us stock a great initial selection and the list has grown over time. The shelves, the fridges and the freezers are well stocked,” she said.

Every Monday volunteers from Benkelman load up a pickup, a van and sometimes a trailer with groceries at the Stratton store and bring them back to volunteers waiting at the Benkelman store who unload the boxes and restock the shelves. Amy makes trips through Stratton every day and fills in with needed items. The bread truck comes to the newspaper/grocery store twice a week.

“It’s an all-volunteer effort,” Amy said. “People have come out of the woodwork to help. You leave (Stratton) with a truckload of groceries and post on social media that you’ll be in Benkelman in 20 minutes, and by the time you’re there, the volunteers are waiting. They unload, unpack and stock the shelves, break-down the boxes, and are gone as quickly as they arrived. It’s a leap of faith every week that someone will be there to help. We’ve never been short. And we’ve been blessed with someone different almost every week coming forward and saying they’d help make the trip to Stratton.”

Amy said the little grocery store has actually been a multi-community event because the Stratton store has five or six ladies show up every week there and they help get the groceries ready to come to Benkelman.

Eric’s sister, Kay Voss, from Denver, helps with the daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. operation of the little grocery store in Benkelman. Sally Hudson and the Frederick family keep it open until 6 p.m., each night and from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on weekends.

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Amy thought initially a mini-mart grocery store would help the elderly the most, but she’s realized the working citizens, as well as several handicapped residents and those without vehicles also appreciate the small grocery store

“There’s someone who cries at least once a week in the store,” Amy said. “We have Kleenex behind the counter now because I didn’t realize how emotional the lack of a grocery store would be for people. Some people really needed this.”

Amy is impressed with Eric’s willingness to help provide inventory for the Benkelman store. “He didn’t have to go along with our hair-brained idea,” Amy said, with a grin.

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The little grocery store has been a community project. “We’ve had to think together … work together. It’s taken some creative thinking,” Amy said.

And in the end, the temporary grocery store has touched an ever-widening circle of people. It’s provided a quick gallon of milk or a loaf of bread; it’s prevented trips out of town to fill a longer list of groceries. It supports other downtown Benkelman businesses. It’s created, or reignited, a feeling of community and it’s developed new friendships.

When Amy started this project, Rex Walgren, whose family owned a grocery store in Wauneta for many years, encouraged her. “He told me I was on the right track and the community of Benkelman needed to do whatever it takes to keep that store going in Benkelman,” she said. He told me, “Once people’s shopping habits change, it’s hard to get those people to come back. You’ve got to keep something going.”

Walgren’s knowledge has been a wonderful resource for our community, Amy said. “And he provided me the reassurances needed at the beginning. The result of the little grocery store project has been that it has kept many shoppers in Benkelman.”

Eric Voss, too, will benefit from his unselfish support of the Benkelman community, as he applied for and has been granted a Small Business Administration loan to reopen Benkelman’s big grocery store, hopefully by Halloween. And what do you wanna bet that Benkelman residents will support the grocery store owner who supported them, and they continue to shop locally?

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Amy and Jason’s only “profit” from the grocery store project has been the friendship and enjoyment they have experienced working together with all of the other volunteers. “There’s so many volunteers. I wish I could name them all and thank them all. Without them, none of this would have been possible,” Amy said.

The mini grocery store was never meant to be a permanent solution. The Fredericks and the community always had hopes that a grocery store would reopen. It looks like the community’s faith and hard work are being rewarded …

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