Bad News: Kerm's is closing

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Gragert, Jeremy Evan (GRAGERJE@uwec.edu)
Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:40:44 -0600



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.
 
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  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."



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