Owner starves, shuts rural groceries in Colorado

Many rural areas are forced to travel long distances to reach a full-service grocery, but some northeastern Colorado residents faced a different problem — their local grocery stores remained open, but the shelves were bare. That was a harbinger; Bella's Markets in Akron and Wiggins closed Tuesday and the one in Walden will close Thursday, Jacyln Allen reports for KMGH-TV in Denver. (KGMH image: Empty shelves in Akron)

Samuel Mancini, who owns eight Bella's Markets in Colorado, "cited legal and financial troubles as reasons for the 'temporary' closures," and told the Wellington store it would remain open, but business is slow considering there's barely any food to purchase, Zahira Torres reports for The Denver Post. Mancini said he would re-stock shelves by Aug. 5. Wellington mayor Jack Brinkhoff told Torres, "It means we have to spend another week and a half with nothing on our shelves."

Mancini, who filed for bankruptcy in 2012, "paid himself $1.4 million between 2010 and June 2013," according to bankruptcy documents, Torres writes. "He used about $700,000 of that to pay off judgments and claims against him, bankruptcy documents said."

Undercover video shot by KGMH "found no fresh meat, no eggs and few staples on the Akron store's shelves," Allen writes. "It was the same case in Wellington during July." After Allen's initial story on Bella's last month, people sent the town food donations. Akron Town Clerk Annette Bowin told Allen, "We got boxes of food, which we donated to a food bank. We don't need handouts. We need a grocery store."

Colleen Conroy, Jackson County's assistant county administrator, "said it has been two years since Walden has had a fully stocked grocery store, and they have to drive 60 miles one way to go shopping elsewhere," Allen writes. (Read more)