Don’t think of ‘super’ in relation to size.

September 4, 2023 9:22 AM

How Sheffield Illinois saved its last remaining grocery store. [Archive.ph]
posted by jacquilynne (18 comments total)

“Super fun, super kind, super at meeting the small town need”… I love that.
posted by johnxlibris at 9:30 AM on September 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

That was cheering. Frex, the fob implementation of small town trust - not just being one of the people who knows where the jiggly lock is and believes they won’t get in trouble.
posted by clew at 9:52 AM on September 4, 2023

Kind of strange how this small town was strong enough to support a "wellness center", but not enough to attract an entrepreneur or entity interested in running a grocery store of that size. It's difficult to sustain businesses on good will. The store itself seems to have been profitable enough to sustain itself, but not enough to feel like a safe investment from anybody but the collection of donors and a couple outside grants. Hopefully it can be run as more than a "community project" or plaything that builds its own incentives for self sustain.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:26 AM on September 4, 2023

It's probably a business that provides enough to support only a few paid workers and not much else. Probably no real capability for increasing your wealth, just a way to keep a livelihood running.

I personally don't see anything wrong with a business that is designed to just be self-sustaining. Eternal growth is just cancer. But finding a niche and living in it securely is well-evolved, IMO.
posted by hippybear at 11:26 AM on September 4, 2023 [20 favorites]

There's a Canadian company called Hawkins that makes a single product called Cheezies. They don't advertise, they don't look to expand into other countries or products or even flavours of their current product, they just make Cheezies. It employs the family and generations of loyal employees and they don't see a pressing need to make it bigger. I've always admired that about them.

Plus, I really like Cheezies.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:14 PM on September 4, 2023 [14 favorites]

It's really interesting, the point they made about how local supermarkets keep other local businesses alive. Everything costs more in a small-town store, but you're paying for convenience. But once you have to drive to Kewanee a couple times a week anyway to shop at the Walmart, that "convenience" isn't worth as much. So it's actually worthwhile for the other stores in Sheffield to pay to keep a grocery store in town.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:44 PM on September 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

The grocery ran just like Hawkins for a long time, until it didn't. When the owner tried to find takers, there were none. Hopefully he didn't take a bath.

But the idea of 'Eternal growth is just cancer" is a non sequitur here. Nobody was thinking of building the business to be the next Kroger. But few are interested in taking over an endeavor with the possibility of no growth. How many people reading this would take a job with the prospect of no meaningful growth in wages? This is what growth means. And it's not like the business isn't attempting to grow. There seems to be an effort in expanding their offerings and at least strengthen its customer base.

But the biggest problem is the whole notion that it's a community based business. Nobody has a very big stake in the endeavor, and few are highly motivated to really jump in if the venture begins to lag. If the employees want a bigger raise than what's being offered, how much more pressure is there to not burden or abandon the community with such needs? Hey, you owe the community! Especially with the dynamic where the hat was passed around to save the place. It doesn't seem to be run as a co-op, which has its own set of problems, but can be a viable model. I'd be curious if a small town grocery could have enough momentum to be run that way.
posted by 2N2222 at 1:01 PM on September 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

But the idea of 'Eternal growth is just cancer" is a non sequitur here. Nobody was thinking of building the business to be the next Kroger. But few are interested in taking over an endeavor with the possibility of no growth.

That's why it's specifically NOT a non sequitur. That's why they couldn't find investors. It's the capitalist concept that everything must always be growing that kept this store from finding a private buyer.

I personally don't know what being a community-based business means for this specific instance. But I do not assume that is the biggest problem in this whole notion. That could be its individual saving grace.
posted by hippybear at 1:31 PM on September 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

When a business like this can't find a buyer, it means that the entire business's economic profit is like $50,000 a year. When the owner is willing to be full-time manager, he can combine that with a reasonable manager's salary and make a decent living, but completely not worth the headache it to own it and have to pay a manager's salary and benefits on top. It also means that it's not worth it to refresh the equipment and premises, which every business needs every so often.

Also, the part they quickly mentioned was that the owner/manager also owned the real estate. This was a business that was probably worth less than the re-use value of the real estate, and the owner would have had to sold the real estate for housing or whatever in order to retire. A big part of the purchase price went to pay him that excess real estate value.

The trust is hoping to capture that back with revenue enhancing new offerings including the semi-honor system unattended overnight sale process, which will be very cool if works.
posted by MattD at 1:45 PM on September 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

When a business like this can't find a buyer, it means that the entire business's economic profit is like $50,000 a year.

I assume you mean this is profit above the three salaries it continues to pay after the previous owner stepped out of running the business and claiming a salary for doing that? This wasn't a single person operation even before the transition, and everyone who was working there before except the person who sold it is still working there.
posted by hippybear at 1:52 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

How many people reading this would take a job with the prospect of no meaningful growth in wages?

LOL what??? I have never in my life had a job with "meaningful growth in wages" and it has never even been on my job-search radar, because if I am searching for a job it's because I'm unemployed and desperately need the first job I can possibly get.

Holy shit, I even have a "good," middle-class-type WFH desk job and this is the case. The only people I know with the luxury of considering "meaningful growth in wages" already make four times my salary and zero of them work in retail.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:14 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Good thing Illinois is a blue state, because if they tried this in a red one, you just know there'd be some corporate-political machine coming down on them calling it socialism and demanding recompense for theoretical lost profits from Walmart 15 miles away.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 9:21 AM on September 5, 2023

I assume you mean this is profit above the three salaries it continues to pay after the previous owner stepped out of running the business and claiming a salary for doing that?

Profit means the money made after all the expenses are paid, generally including paying salary for employees but not necessarily for the owner for a small business. So yes, $50k in profit roughly equals the owners salary, plus however much he got for also running the electronics store. If you had to calculate his wages by the hour as owner, maybe $5-$10 for a small grocery store....maybe a bit more. So that's the 'income growth' MattD is talking about - fighting his way up to minimum wage.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:58 AM on September 5, 2023

(the hourly wage to get to 50K per year is about 24 dollars per hour; not exorbitant but hardly minimum wage. In Illinois minimum wage is currently $13.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:02 AM on September 5, 2023

The store owner is wildly unlikely to be working only 40 hrs a week.
posted by Mitheral at 10:55 AM on September 5, 2023

The store owner is wildly unlikely to be working only 40 hrs a week.

I mean, so am I. And when I was making 50K a year, it was even less unlikely. But since we're just taking that 50K on faith (it is not mentioned in the article and seems to just be what MattD thinks?) and that number was being used for several other "possible if X number of other things are true" calculations, I don't see the harm in pointing out that 50K/yr take-home isn't exactly starvation wages -- especially not in small-town Illinois.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:13 AM on September 5, 2023

I never said he was 'on starvation wages' - you added that part. I said that was not enough for some other group to wish to purchase the store, which considering he had it for sale for several years, is true. And what do you have to do with this article? Do you also run a grocery store in a small town?
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:12 PM on September 5, 2023

Profit means the money made after all the expenses are paid, generally including paying salary for employees but not necessarily for the owner for a small business.

I thought the thing to do was to incorporate and have the company run the business and you get paid as an employee?

I mean, I don't know, I don't own a small business, but I've long understood the best thing to do is to separate oneself as much as possible from a business so if the business goes under it doesn't take you with it.
posted by hippybear at 12:21 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]