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New grocery store in town is cause for celebration
by J.R. Reider

In many ways, a grocery store is as vital to the identity of a small town as the school is. Both contribute to the vitality of a community by drawing in people from the outlying areas; both are usually large and visible; and when either a grocery store or a school is shuttered, it sends a shiver through the spine of a town.

When the Nash Finch Company, owners of SunMart grocery stores decided to close one of it’s two locations in Holdrege, Nebraska, it left a large, empty building shuttered at the north entrance to town. But while Holdrege may have shivered a little it needn’t have worried.

Holdrege is one small town making a serious effort to not only survive but thrive in the years ahead, and the proof that they’re succeeding is a new and improved supermarket where the old one stood.

Long time owners of the Lexington Plum Creek Market Place and other stores, Mogen Knudsen and his wife’s family had been looking at the Holdrege area for many years as a place to add a store. They perceived the area as being too big for just one grocer and when the building became available, they began making plans to bring their unique brand of grocery to Phelps County.

Knudsen credits the building’s owner, the Noddle Companies of Omaha, with helping give the building a complete overhaul – a fact reflecting the Noddle Companies’ confidence in the future of Holdrege. The lighting, heating and air conditioning, flooring, fixtures — virtually all of the interior has been rebuilt or replaced in the store, he said.

The remodeling includes all new checkstands with state-of-the-art registers and scanners, as well as the fastest electronic payment processing currently available. Staying in line with what contemporary consumers want, the aisles are wide and all new freezers and other refrigerated equipment have been installed. A modern customer courtesy center will offer money orders, lottery tickets, tobacco products and other services, including local grocery delivery.

Knudsen said customers can expect a bountiful produce area with a wide variety of products, grocery shelves stocked with brand names and private label Shurfresh and Shurfine products of all kinds.

The meat department will feature all choice beef, including Black Angus beef products.

“People in this area know beef and want quality,” Knudsen stated. He said the meat department will take care of custom orders and he intends to feature “large meat promotions,” with special package prices on ten pound bundles.

New to Holdrege and rare in rural areas, a unique variety of gourmet items including organic products from all over the world will be on the shelves. The gourmet selections continue in the liquor aisle, featuring a number of ‘gourmet’ wines — Knudsen promises a more unique selection than the mix found in most stores.

Knudsen has been impressed with the welcome they’ve received in Holdrege, finding the city and county cooperative and easy to work with. There were plenty of applicants for the 40 employees they are currently hiring, of which about half will be full time.

Store manager Galen Banzhaf is already hard at work preparing new hires for the work ahead. One immediate part of training is on registers. Knudsen stressed that ALL employees learn to run a check stand as part of their training. “We will have five stands available and if we see lines backing up, we won’t hesitate to call up additional staff to keep the lines moving, managers included!”

Knudsen said The Market Place stores pride themselves on being responsive to the needs of their local communities and that suggestions from customers would go a long way towards determining new product additions and services available in the store.

A bright new, well-lit sign and cars in the parking lot have turned what could have been a blight for Holdrege into a huge community asset.

J.R. Reider is the marketing director for Axis Capital, Inc. in Grand Island and, in his spare time, a freelance writer living in Holdrege, Nebraska.

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