New "Country Store" In Shawano

Nice idea. From the Shawano Leader Online

"Country Store plans move to new building
By Tim Ryan, Leader Reporter

Plans were unveiled Wednesday for a new and larger Country Store Foods in downtown Shawano.

Country Store owner Charlie Harvey, store supplier Supervalu, Inc. and Realtor Terry Hilgenberg presented the plans at a special meeting of the Common Council Wednesday.

“This will be a destination retail location,” Hilgenberg said, noting it would add jobs and spur additional downtown development.

“This is an exciting, realistic and reasonable project that can really take care of our customers,” said Jeff McClure, area marketing director for Supervalu.

“We think we can open a new store within one year,” he said.

Harvey said the new store would continue to feature what area customers have come to expect from the store, especially local brands, which he hopes to expand.

“Never will you see that go,” Harvey said.

McClure stressed that Supervalu’s role in the project was only as support for Harvey.

“We’re not the outside company coming in,” he said. “It’s their business and we work for them.”

McClure said Harvey even chose the location after insisting the store be kept in the downtown area. A market analyst brought in to consider a location ultimately agreed with Harvey’s choice, McClure said.

The 43,000 square foot grocery store — more than double the existing store — would be located just a little south of the existing facility on property currently home to Retail Lumber at 111 W. Richmond Street.

Retail Lumber is moving to a new location in Wescott, Hilgenberg said.

The new location would require closing off Richmond Street between Main and Washington streets, which would become part of the new store’s parking lot.

Though the discontinuation of that street was on the agenda of the Shawano Common Council Wednesday night, the council was not able to take action on it.

The matter has to go to the Plan Commission first with a public hearing.

Property owners in the neighborhood would have to be notified, so the soonest it could go before the Plan Commission would be the commission’s December meeting.

McClure said the new building itself — without any of the amenities inside — would cost about $7.5 million.

He also said the project was unique in at least one respect.

“This is one of only four or five times we have ever come to a city with a downtown project,” he said, explaining most new stores of this size were located near freeways or new subdivision developments on the outskirts of communities.

The project has been in the works for more than two years, McClure said.

McClure said the current store — at 413 South Main St. — is limited by its 20,000 square foot space, insufficient parking and traffic problems for trucks making deliveries.

The new store, he said, “will be up to date with today’s grocery store standards.”

All of the service areas — including meat, produce and bakery — would be expanded, and the store would feature “a full deli lineup” rather than what is now basically only “a deli case.”

The store would also have a walk-in “beer cave” featuring what Harvey said would be “probably any beer that’s in the market.”

As for the current Country Store site, there are currently no plans for its future use, Hilgenberg said, but there is a lot of potential.

Hilgenberg said the development of the new Country Store would likely enhance the development potential of the old property.

“This will have a positive impact,” he said." Shawano Leader