Iowa Town to Reopen Jewell Market

Grocery stores are often seen as the heart of the community, the gathering spot. But too many small towns have seen their stores close down. Residents of Jewell, Iowa, have joined a growing movement of towns stepping up to save the only grocery store in town. A local grocery store has become increasingly important during the pandemic, when many small-town residents have returned to their local markets to avoid crowds in larger supermarkets.

In Jewell, the longtime owner had to sell the store recently, and Nick Graham purchased it. Graham had made a name for himself by buying up small town groceries such as the one in Jewell, becoming known as the youngest grocer in America because he purchased his first store at age 17. But his ventures have run into trouble recently, and he announced he was closing Jewell’s Heartland Market in January. Graham recently closed five of his six stores. Only the store in Ackley, Iowa, remains open. The store in Manning, Iowa, was purchased and now operates as Ramsey Market. The stores in Manson, Iowa, and Rockwell City, Iowa, closed for good. His Heartland Market in Gowrie, Iowa, also recently closed and reopened on April 25, with a story similar to Jewell Market.

As in Gowrie, the residents of Jewell were not going to let their only grocery store close down. Garren Zanker, who worked his first job at the store at age 15 when it was known as Anderson’s Meat and Grocery before going to work at Fareway and Hy-Vee, joined a five-member board of directors to establish Jewell Market LLC and reopen the store as a community-owned market or co-op. The group sold $400 shares to community members and held fundraisers every weekend. They needed to raise $225,000 to save the store and ended up raising $250,000.

The new Jewell Market will reopen to customers on July 1, with Zanker acting as the manager. “We are a close-knit community,” Zanker said in a local news report. “We seem to come together when there’s a need, and we are going to support each other. And that’s going to be my responsibility to make sure we can take care of that. Take care of everybody that’s here.”

As the store has prepared to reopen, it hasn’t been idle in serving the community. Those weekly fundraisers to reopen the store are now being held to help other members in the community that are in need, and the parking lot also has served as the home of the local farmers market.