Grocery Store In Victor

Susan Wilgenbusch has decided to take a chance on the community she has called home for 37 years. She's opening Victor's Market, a combination grocery store, convenience store, restaurant and gas station. The key is the grocery store part.

"Susan is on a mission to get fresh produce here," says her husband, Duke. "And that's not easy."

"I'm a health nut," Susan replied. "It's important. People want it."

Yes, a grocery store in a town like Victor, with a population just under 1,000 people, is important. Plenty of studies show that a grocery store is the lifeblood of any small community. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

So, beginning last spring, Susan purchased a service station/convenience store along old Highway 6 in Victor. The place had been going just fine but it was rather small for her dreams of adding fresh produce, meat and the like.

Ground was broken in August for the new 3,600-square foot Victor's Market that should open any day now. It has plenty of room to be the convenience store, restaurant (she's added broasted chicken and sub sandwiches to pizza and the like), gas station and the return of a grocery store. The old service station in front was being torn down to make way for parking when I stopped last week, but the canopy above the gas pumps (new ones) will remain.

Victor Country Foods closed nearly a decade ago and folks in town did what they could to find another store to replace it. But, it seems that chain stores thought Victor was too small while private enterprise just wasn't willing to invest that much money.

Susan, who taught English and speech in the HLV schools for 19 years, decided to make a go of it. As she said, "I didn't want to die in a town that doesn't have a grocery store."

Susan grew up on Polk City, a town of about 3,000 people near Des Moines, while Duke grew up in Rickardsville, a town of only about 200 northwest of Dubuque. So both know what it's like to live in a small town -- they came to Victor in 1973 when Duke joined Leonard Seda in his veterinary practice.

The key to success -- a Casey's General Store is just a block away -- will be community support. The locals need to come in to buy gas, prepared food, convenience store items and groceries if Victor's Market is to succeed. Especially groceries, like fresh lettuce, carrots, fruit, meat ... because if too much of that stuff remains on the shelves it will spoil and the costs to continue carrying it will become prohibitive.

Susan has the right idea when she says  the apostrophe in the name, Victor's Market, is to show that the community owns the store. Once the store opens, it is up to the public to prove her right.