So, here in the cornfields. in our little town, we have a grocery store crisis brewing. For almost a hundred years, we had several little independent grocers, of which, two, which became Hilander, and Loglis, were the two largest. Both were locally owned til 10 or so years, ago. Then, the family who owned Hilander, wanted to retire. The chain, Kroger bought them. Ok, not bad for the first year, then service and selection plummeted like an Acapulco cliff diver. As best I can recall ( it gets confusing) Loglis were sold in the same manner, to Schnucks, out of St. Louis. A couple years later, Kroger sold the Hilander chain to Schnucks, who now owned the bulk of supermarkets/grocery stores in town. Enter more Acapulco cliff diving of service and selection.
A year or so ago, a Meijers decided to come to town. We have a Woodman’s, from Wi, here, and it’s a pretty good place to shop, but not as handy as the several aforementioned stores. With the Meijers monster coming to our part of the cornfields, Schnucks, displaying their amazing lack of business ability, started closing the stores they had recently acquired.
First, the one in our neighborhood, which, had, in the last four or five years, turned into a store straight out of the ‘hood. Not a good place to go. Along with that, they cut back every employees hours to part time, thus cutting pay and benefits. They are now in the process of closing every other store in town. More than half a dozen in an area of 200, 000 people.
In a brilliant stroke of business sense, Schnucks has managed to destroy a century of local business, unemploy hundreds, and remove any local grocery stores from around the entire city…

Thanks, Schnucks, for your brilliant business strategy, and, dedication to community…. We really appreciate it…