FULDA RESIDENTS RALLY IN SUPPORT OF MAYNARD’S GROCERY STORE

By Norma Dittman Approximately 225 Fulda area residents filled the cafeteria at Fulda High School on Wednesday, January 14th for a meeting with management of the Maynard’s Grocery Store. A ‘For Sale’ sign posted in December on the entry door to the Fulda Maynard’s Grocery Store was the first indication to the community of the store’s struggle to be profitable.

Immediate action was taken by the Fulda Economic Development Association (EDA) as they called for the community meeting. All information posted by the EDA indicated that Maynard’s president, Gary Carlson, and Eric Olsem, Assistant General Manager, would be present at the meeting to hear comments from the public and respond to their questions At the meeting, Carlson explained that there are 15 stores in the Maynard’s chain,located in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa. “Fulda was one of the first three stores that was purchased by the owners, Maynard Kramer and Larry Larson, in the late 1980’s. We feel honored to be part of the Fulda community,” Carlson stated.

He continued, “In the past few years since Dollar General has come into Fulda, our sales have continually declined. I am not going to blame it all on Dollar General, but Fulda sales have declined to a point where we can not be operationally profitable. We have been unprofitable the last five years with more decline the past two years. Fulda would need to have $4,000 more in sales per week in order to be profitable. If the store does not reach their sales goal by the end of May, the store will have to be sold or close.”

Responding to a question about if there have been any potential buyers, Carlson said, “There have been three individuals... two of them farmers.... and a third who is a businessman, and a fourth that we have visited with. I was hoping any of those four would have been here tonight.”

“We’ve had good managers through-out the years. We know that continuity of managers with longer tenure tend to do better in our stores. If a local person would own the store, it would probably be more profitable,” Carlson said.

Steps have been taken by Maynard’s personnel to improve the quality of products offered at the Fulda location. About three weeks ago, a management team, including Carlson and Olsem, audited the store and removed all outdated product.

Another person in attendance stated that Maynard’s needs to improve the produce department, as they have tried purchasing their produce in Fulda only to have it go bad a day or two later. And yet others delivered complaints about the freshness of the dairy department. Carlson stated that a curtain system for the open dairy cooler will be looked into.

“Most profitable should be the produce and meat departments. That’s why we wanted a meat cutter in each store, so that we could offer fresh cuts to our customers. Regarding the produce department, we are bringing in personnel from Associated Wholesale Grocers who will be training the employees to improve the produce department,” Carlson said.

Other questions included what the possibility of adding a liquor department to the grocery store is, what decline management saw when they made the decision to discontinue their sales brochures, and how Fulda compares to other comparable sized stores in the Maynard’s chain. “The cost of printing and mailing the brochures was prohibitive, but you can pick them up at the counter in any Maynard’s store... not only this week’s, but next week’s is available, too. Just ask for them,” Carlson commented.

Carlson promised that the company would post each week whether the community has been able to achieve the additional $4,000 each week that is needed to make the store profitable. (Their post of Monday, January 19th, stated, “For those of you who were at the meeting -1560 last week”, which meant that the goal of $4,000 was not met.)

As discussion came to a close, Carlson informed the crowd that the building and inventory will cost approximately $425,000 to purchase.

He thanked all who were in attendance at the meeting, commenting that it showed the level of importance that the grocery store is to the community.