With smart planning and community spirit, some rural places succeed in keeping their local grocery stores open

Royal Super Mart allows families stay in town to shop.
(Royal Super Mart courtesy photo via The Post)

Rural grocery stores have been closing because of fewer residents, larger competitors and labor shortages. And that leaves residents with longer drives for staples and another community gathering space shuttered. Some states and rural towns, such as South Dakota and Sheffield, Illinois, have saved their local grocery stores with collaboration, creativity and resourcefulness.

North Dakota’s Commerce Committee and legislature began studying the closing of its rural grocery stores in 2019. Their research revealed that “North Dakota lost 15% of its rural grocery stores in towns with fewer than 2,100 people between 2013 and 2019, reports Laura Simmons of High Plains Reader. The losses were “driven by declining populations, distribution costs. . . online sales and dollar stores, according to North Dakota Grocers Association President John Dyste. 'North Dakota is losing rural grocery stores at an alarming rate, causing consumers to travel greater distances to access healthy food choices such as fresh meat and produce. This especially affects the elderly and low-income members of these communities; they are in many cases left with few choices to purchase healthy foods.'”

Strategies to help alleviate these problems included "collaborative purchasing and a spoke-hub distribution system," Simmons explains. "Rural Access Distribution Cooperative implemented these ideas in Walsh County. Three grocery stores in Park River, Hoople and Edinburg order together through separate accounts from the same supplier. This supplier then drops off all the food at Jim’s Supervalu in Park River. RAD then transports Edinburg's and Hoople’s food to the correct store. This format helps increase volume, which decreases price."

Bata told Simmons, “The community has supported us overwhelmingly. I think that this is showing in the numbers. . . . Hoople Grocery saw a 23% increase in sales and Edinburg’s Market on Main saw a 16% increase in sales."

In Sheffield, Illinois, Royal Super Mart owner John Winger wanted to sell his store and retire, but he couldn't find a buyer, reports Sydney Page of The Washington Post. "Apart from his store, Royal Super Mart, the nearest full-service grocery store is 15 miles away from the tiny town of Sheffield, Ill., a farming village with a population of about 800 people." When Royal Super Mart opened in 1940, it was one of four local groceries in town.

Winger felt like closing the store would be abandoning his neighbors, especially residents without transportation. Page reports, "Then last summer, Elizabeth Pratt, who grew up in a nearby town and has lived in Sheffield for 12 years, approached Winger with an idea. She offered to raise money through her nonprofit, a local wellness center called Cornerstone Community Wellness, to buy the store, with the goal of transforming it into a sustainable social enterprise, which is a business that reinvests its profits into its mission. This would ensure people would not have to leave Sheffield to buy fresh food."

"In a matter of months, the community raised $500,000, which was enough for Cornerstone Community Wellness to purchase the property and overhaul the store. Roughly 125 individuals donated, and contributions ranged from $5 to $50,000. About 15 percent of donations came from grants and corporations," Page writes. "Sheffield residents who donated were aware of the role local grocery stores play in both community and economic development in areas such as Sheffield. They also saw how the loss of independent supermarkets hurt other small towns."