Closing of Pilot Grove's sole grocery store saddens residents

A few items remain on the mostly bare shelves of the Main Street Grocery.

Pilot Grove, with a population of 723, lost its sole grocery when the Main Street store shut down in June. Former assistant manager Terry Lang, who worked at the grocery store for 34 years, said it closed for the same reasons most other small-town groceries shut down — they can’t compete with the low prices and varied inventory offered by big box stores.

“We had our regular customers, and had some good loyal customers, but there wasn’t enough of them,” Lang, 58, said.

Many in town call the grocery store closing a shame. Some residents used the store for nearly all of their grocery shopping, while others bought most of their groceries in Sedalia or Boonville and used the store for in-between trips and perishable items.

Christine Wirths, 28, said “it is a huge tragedy that our only store has closed,” however, “the majority of people in Pilot Grove have always done their major shopping in either Boonville or Sedalia.”

Wirths shopped at the grocery at least three times a week in between her trips to Boonville and for forgotten ingredients. She will likely most miss the convenience of getting milk from the store. Wirths plans to do most of her shopping now at the Super Wal-Mart that recently opened in Boonville.

Several people mentioned their concern for elderly people who no longer drive and walked to get their groceries.

Harry Simmons, 91, lives in a senior housing complex in Pilot Grove. His car is broken down so his children now bring him groceries and his neighbors rely on family or friends to take them shopping.

“It’s a shame there’s not a grocery store in town,” he said. “It should have the people to support it.”

Some folks have turned to the Casey’s General Store for items like milk, eggs, bacon and lunch meat. Casey’s manager Kathy Pollard has noticed an uptick in business since the Main Street Grocery closed.

Pollard thinks the closing could have an impact on city tax revenues and the ability to attract new residents to town.
Ralph Twenter, 78, understands all too well what it’s like to lose local customers to bigger stores that offer lower prices. Three years ago he had to close Twenter Lumber, his business of 36 years.

Twenter did 90 percent of his shopping in Pilot Grove before the store closed. He has his daughter, who works in Boonville, pick up groceries for him sometimes.

“It’s going to hurt us,” Twenter said of the grocery store closing.

Lang first worked at the store when it was Gerke’s Grocery and owned by Elwood Gerke. Bill and Brenda Bader bought the store from Gerke about five years ago and were the latest owners.

The grocery business has changed tremendously over the past three decades, Lang said. There used to be very little difference between grocery stores. The stores paid virtually the same prices for the goods they sold, and priced merchandise about the same.

But, as grocery stores got bigger they started receiving price breaks by buying in bulk.

“You miss out on a lot of deals that the big stores can buy,” Lang said of smaller groceries.

Larger operations can also sell items for less, but still bring in a larger profits because they have a greater volume of customers than smaller groceries.

“It was hard to compete,” Lang said.

Smaller grocers have a more difficult time choosing their inventory. They need to offer what customers want, but never know if they will be able to sell all the product once it’s stocked.

“It’s a poker game all the time. You never know what a customer wants,” Lang said. “One customer might think something is the greatest thing in the world and others don’t like it.”

Some people have asked Lang to open a grocery store, but that’s a risk he’s not willing to take. He noticed 20 stores who used the same distributor as the Main Street Grocery in an 11-state area have closed in the past four years.

“That’s what it would be, a major gamble, because small town stores like this are closing right and left,” Lang said.