Subject: Bad news: Kerm's is closing Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:40:44 -0600 Message-ID: <A5B73933514E494097467804DBDF709D07A161EF@COKE.uwec.edu> From: "Gragert, Jeremy Evan" <GRAGERJE@uwec.edu>
Kerm's grocery store on Water Street is closing, according to an article
on the front page of today's Leader-Telegram.
Undoubtedly, Target and Wal-Mart, along with other major supermarkets in
the suburbs, killed Kerm's. This news is still a shock to me, but it
shows that the automobile-industrial complex is still at work in Eau
Claire.
Many students and those without cars will have a more difficult time
getting food this winter, and a harder time supporting locally own
businesses.
This will leave Just Local Food Co-op (772 First Ave.,
www.justlocalfood.com) as the only grocery store within a mile radius of
the downtown, and the store is still very small. We will see what the
future holds for the building Kerm's will vacate, and we should all work
to support Just Local Food as well.
Take care, all.
---------------------------
11/28/2006 1:09:01 PM
Kerm's bagging groceries
Store to close in December
Leader-Telegram Staff
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After years as the small, personable grocery store competing against the
giants of the Eau Claire grocery market, Kerm's on Water Street will
close before Christmas.
Gone will be the familiar red-and-white "Kerm's" sign in front of the
store. Store employees lugging groceries to customer's vehicles also
will come to an end, as will the convenience for UW-Eau Claire students
and others who shopped there.
The closing of the store at 329 Water St. also marks the end of a
business the Walker family has operated since 1964, except for two years
in the late 1980s.
"It was a very tough decision," owner Mike Walker said this morning
while working at the store. "This store has become a part of people's
lives."
The store's exact closing date is uncertain but will be in two to three
weeks, Walker said.
Business at Kerm's was slow this morning, evidence of a customer base
that has slowly eroded, Walker said. But rising costs and competition
with larger groceries are more responsible for the store's demise, he
said.
"These days it seems like everybody is selling groceries," he said,
noting Eau Claire's saturated grocery market. "Even Menards is selling
groceries now."
Target, Festival Foods and Wal-Mart entering the local market made it
tough for Kerm's to compete, Walker said.
The store founded by Mike Walker's father, Kerm Walker, was known for
catering to customers.
"This is a place where people knew your name," longtime customer
Kathleen Sprester said.
Like many patrons stopping by the store this morning, Sprester hadn't
heard it was closing. She reacted with a mix of shock and resignation
that another small grocery was shutting its doors.
"A lot of people are going to miss this place. Where else can you go
today and have people carry your groceries to your car?" she said.
For many in the Water Street neighborhood, the closing of Kerm's will be
a difficult adjustment, said Duane Larson, manager of the Kerm's meat
department the past 11 years.
"It's still an important niche for the community down here," Larson
said. "College kids did a lot of shopping here. More important, we had a
lot of loyal older folks. They could walk or have a short drive here. It
was easy for them to get around the smaller store."
Most workers at the store were told of the closing Monday night.
"I could see it coming because the shelves were getting emptier," said
Larson, 48, who worked for the company for 18 years. "I'd be ordering
product and no truck would show up."
Larson enjoyed coming to work at the Water Street store each day.
"It was great working here," Larson said. "I like being around the
people. In big stores, you're kind of stuck in back and can't really be
with the customer base."
UW-Eau Claire student Adam Prahl praised the workplace, calling it "one
big family." He worked as a bookkeeper for the past four months and said
longtime customers will miss the store.
"For a lot of people in this area, this was a gathering place," he said.
For Larson, the new year will bring a new job. He may try to find work
as a meat-cutter elsewhere and also has some background in the medical
field.
"This was my career," he said. "I've been 28 years in the grocery retail business."