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Gowrie Grocery LLC reaches goal

Board working on next steps forward

-Messenger file photo by Elijah Decious
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Nick Graham, owner of Jamboree Foods in Gowrie, took a tour of Gowrie’s only grocery store in August. The closure of most of Graham’s other stores led community leaders in Gowrie to successfully raise $250,000 to purchase the store through Gowrie Grocery LLC. The next steps for saving the town’s only grocery store are in progress.

GOWRIE — A passionate January meeting in Gowrie has yielded results: Gowrie Grocery LLC managed to raise $250,000 in 10 days to purchase Jamboree Foods, the town’s only grocery store, averting an impending closure.

Jamboree Foods, a location in the small Heartland Market chain, watched six of its seven sister stores close over 2019 and early 2020. Months ago, Gowrie came to the consensus that Jamboree is next on the chopping block.

Its last surviving sister store in Ackley has shown prominent distress, too. On Sunday, owner Nick Graham asked his social media following for their thoughts and suggestions on a change.

“I think it goes without saying this grocery store has not worked well in quite a while,” Graham said, asking Ackley residents their thoughts on closing the store with an expansion of a hardware store to take its place.

On Gowrie Grocery LLC’s Jan. 7 meeting, the palpable momentum in a crowded room shifted the demeanor from anxious to excited after a few key people said they were all in.

“I’m in,” exclaimed former Gowrie Mayor Dave Stokesbary after peppering the board with questions. “I’ve bet on uglier horses.”

If the bets are any indication, that momentum has sent this horse — beauty aside — off to the races. But the hard work is just getting started after the preliminary hurdle.

“The process of raising the money has been very quick, but unfortunately the process of putting everything together for the next step has been taking some time,” said Gowrie Grocery LLC organizer Marcie Boerner.

Now that the question of interest has been resolved with overwhelming response, business and community leaders that helped spearhead the group are weighing all their options.

Boerner said that many contributors to the quarter million raised purchased a share, at $2,500 each, though a mix of donors who could not afford that amount made substantial contributions as well.

“The group is moving forward and doing its due diligence to make sure we do it right the first time,” Boerner said. “We have the support, now we need to take the next step.”

And as those doing the leg work may know, grocery store operations are often easier said than done.

“Most customers don’t understand all the things that have to go right every day,” said former Jamboree Foods owner Jeff Petersen, from pricing accuracy and connections to the wholesaler down to making sure the right price tags and signs are up around the store.

He said the key to making or breaking the store as it assumes new ownership will be hiring an experienced manager who can competently handle the daily ins and outs of the store and its employees.

“All that stuff doesn’t happen,” said Petersen, whose father started the store in 1945.

Peterson and his wife purchased the store in 1986 from his parents, running it until 2018, when they sold it to Graham. He said a combination of the new Casey’s General Store built in town, opened several years prior to the store’s sale to Graham, and his age near retirement contributed to the decision

Petersen was vocal about Graham’s management of the small chain, particularly about the management style he said was close to non-existent in most stores.

“He extended himself and it was a house of cards,” Petersen told The Messenger of Graham’s rapid expansion, including the purchase of Jamboree. “He didn’t pay attention to day-to-day management.”

Driving the urgency to raise money for the store’s purchase was the impetus of a closure: if the store closed, those purchasing it would be starting from scratch with inventory. Plus, customers would start to change their shopping habits. But multiple Gowrie residents have said that even while the store remains open, there’s no stock to be purchased.

“I haven’t been able to get a loaf of bread (at Jamboree) in two months,” said Petersen. “I’ve been shopping in Fort Dodge — I never thought I’d do that.”

But the former owner remains optimistic that those habits can be reestablished in Gowrie once the management improves, even against the odds as independent grocers fight rules in the industry which make an uneven playing field that favors big chains.

“There’s no question that the playing field is uneven,” he said.

For example, many large chains don’t pay for items until they’re scanned at checkout, Petersen said, posing no risk of loss.

But despite the woes that chains bring, including one of nearly 16,000 Dollar Generals slated to hit Gowrie soon, the grocery veteran says the battle can be won in Gowrie, population 1,037. About 10% percent of the town has lit the fire — it’s up to the rest of Gowrie to continue fanning the flames.

As other small towns become food deserts on the rural horizon, the citizens of Gowrie are fighting back and bucking the trend.

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