NOTE:  Mayor Clatfelter's comments are in pold print and are underliined.

Getting a grocery store to set up shop in their communities is a priority for at least two small-town leaders.

In Virden, Mayor Wayne Joplin said it’s the No. 1 issue among residents.

“What amazes me more than anything being mayor is the number of people asking, ‘When will we get a grocery store?’” he said.

Sherman Village President Trevor Clatfelter said the same holds true there.

A 2007 survey of Sherman residents showed more than 77 percent believed the village needs a grocery store.

“We want to make it to where you can get all of the services you need within the village of Sherman corporate limits, so we can enjoy the sales tax revenue,” Clatfelter said.

A grocery store can keep residents buying local  and provide much-needed jobs, he and Joplin said.

Both said they’ve gotten favorable feedback from retailers but no official commitments.

Incentives offered

Virden, a community of about 3,500 people, lost its Harmon’s supermarket in 2007.

“There’s a little bit smaller amount of tax revenue from the sales tax. It’s not a huge amount, but it all adds up. The big thing is the hidden cost of driving somewhere to get groceries and the wear and tear on their car,” Joplin said of the impact.

Since then, Virden has been trying to court retailers into the vacant space, including reaching out to all family-owned grocery stores within a 50-mile radius of town.

Joplin said two retailers have shown interest, though he said he couldn’t identify them.

“They asked what, if any, incentives the city would give them if they move to town and other pointed questions, such as who to contact for the health department for a deli,” Joplin said.  “We’re trying to keep our hat in the ring.”

Joplin said the city council has offered incentives to business owners in the past.

“We’re willing to work with them and try to encourage that Virden is a town that will support a grocery store. We did for many years,” he said.

Clatfelter said he believes a grocery store could also thrive in Sherman, which has experienced rapid growth over the last decade. Its population is estimated at more than 3,700.

Sherman has been actively trying to recruit grocery store chains through several outreach efforts, including a redesign of the village’s website to promote economic development and having the village administrator, John Swinford, also act as economic development coordinator to work with business owners.

Village officials also are counting on construction of a new intersection on Sherman’s north side to unlock 35 acres for commercial development. Construction is scheduled to begin June 1.

Clatfelter said he’d like to see a grocery store in that development.

“We’ve actively been pursuing leads and talking incentives for a potential grocery store-type entity as well as other entities for that development and other areas of town,” Clatfelter said.

Small-store challenges

Though popular with residents, small-town grocery stores face many challenges, according to Erin Orwig, a technical assistant at the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, based at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

“It’s hard to find a distributor that’s willing to go to a small town with a small order to drop it off, so that’s a problem for a lot of them,” Orwig said.

“I’ve been here for five years. It seems every year people call up about losing their grocery stores. I don’t know if it’s so much the economy right now, but it probably doesn’t help. It’s that people work in larger towns and tend to shop where they work.”

Small-town stores also have trouble competing with the prices of larger retail chains, she said.

But, Orwig said many communities are willing to fight to keep their supermarkets.

She pointed to the example of Washburn, a small community northeast of Peoria. In 2000, residents united to save the town’s lone grocery store by selling stock and becoming owners.

“We work with other small communities in the same situation who’ve lost it (a grocery store) or are going to lose it and want to have the community own it or do a cooperative grocery store,” Orwig said.

Amanda Reavy can be reached at 788-1525.