Photo: Royal Super Mart
At 69, John Winger wanted to retire from running his small-town grocery store, Royal Super Mart, but didn't want to leave his farming village of 800 in the lurch. The nearest full-service grocery store is 15 miles away. Winger's parents opened the Royal Super Mart in 1940, and Winger took it over in 1985. Last summer, Elizabeth Pratt offered to raise money through her Cornerstone Community Wellness Center to buy the store and make it a sustainable social enterprise. The community raised $500,000."Raising half a million dollars in a small rural community, that was huge," said Mary Lanham, the village president of Sheffield. "People stepped up." The store, which reopened Aug. 1, 2023, now has new technology and equipment, including a key fob system so residents can access the store between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. using self-checkout, and healthy, prepared-meal offerings. Any profits will go back into sustaining the store for years to come.
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