November 29, 2007

Pretty Good Grocery moves, expands

Journal photo by Jennifer Larsen

Come on in! Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery employees Vickie Keen (left), Tracy Ruff and manager Kathy Vallone greet customers Tuesday morning during the business’s grand opening at the new location.

By Jennifer Larsen

News editor

Almost exactly a year after opening, Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery has outgrown its location at the corner of Main Avenue and Washington Street.

On Tuesday, business owners Sam and Debbie Duncan and store manager Kathy Vallone held a grand opening at the new location at 115 West Main Avenue.

Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery opened the doors at the former Olive Branch location on Nov. 19 after a weekend of moving merchandise while keeping the business open.

“We moved it cart by cart,” Debbie said. “We looked like a bunch of ants.”

The moved started on Friday, Nov. 16, and included a crew of volunteers, grocery employees and Ritzville Drug employees.

Customer input is the prime source of information for the owners and store manager. When it came time to design the new store layout, customers and store employees’ ideas were included.

That customer input is an ongoing source of vital information, now and in the future, Debbie explained.

“That’s what this store is for. It’s for Ritzville,” she said. “That’s why it’s Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery. We’ve asked a lot of people what they want.”

The biggest challenge “is to put things in a logical flow,” Sam added, noting that customers continue to be asked where they would look to find a particular product. “It’s truly designed for the community. They just need to ask.”

“The challenge is to meet all those different shopping needs,” Debbie said. “People have different tastes we’re trying to meet, price range and brands.”

“What we’re trying to do is let (the customers) create the store they want,” Sam said.

Making that possible is the crew at Ritzville’s Pretty Good Grocery: Vickie Keen heads up the dairy and meat department; Tracy Ruff, produce; Jean Richards, inventory control and liquor; Dove (Fortin) Ferderer, DVDs and product quality control; Wiley Vorhies, evening shift; and Darla Breazeale, stocking and pricing.

The crew started to realize that the store was outgrowing its location in the spring. The isles weren’t wide enough for motorized scooters, shopping carts and walkers, and Vallone said she was starting to stack merchandise on top of merchandise.

“Last spring we realized the traffic flow was blocked and we needed to add product,” Debbie said.

“It wasn’t conducive to the elderly,” Sam said. “I kind of hated leaving that old building though. It had such great nostalgia.”

They looked all around town at all available options. “People kept asking for a store downtown,” Sam said. “So our main emphasis was to stay downtown.”

The hours will remain the same – 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

The new store has wider aisles and more lighting, which customers noted almost from day one. Daytime deliveries and carryout services are available, as is ordering bulk quantities on an individual basis.

Sam would like to see the store evolve to include local producers within a 50-mile radius. With the additional floor space, customers will find an expanded selection of canned goods, fresh produce, baby items, vitamins and health and beauty products.

If the community shows enough interest, the store would carry more organics and naturals. Down the road, the Duncans hope to expand the meat department.

The business will continue to sponsor Terrific Tuesdays for customers 55 years of age and older. On Tuesday, those citizens will receive 10 percent off.

In the works are in-store specials, including a Christmas drawing for a turkey. Every time a customer spends $50 or more, they are entered into a drawing for a free turkey. The drawing is slated for Dec. 21.

The community support has been overwhelming since the grocery store opened on Nov. 23, 2006, Vallone said. With building owner Steve Oestreich’s willingness to ‘try out’ the grocery store and mobility products, the two business ventures started on solid footings.

The Duncans plan to move the mobility products to Ritzville Drug and expect to carry an assortment of products. Larger items will be special order only.

Medicare’s rules dictating how it pays for durable medical equipment continue to change, Sam said, and those changes are making it unfeasible to carry the products.

“It’s really disappointing to us because we did have a lot of community support for it,” Debbie said.