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Owners
know keeping current drives business
By
Lee Nelson
QUAD-CITY TIMES
DeWITT, Iowa - As customers walk through the automatic doors,
the smell of fresh bread and doughnuts overtakes the senses. Next
to the bakery, families can select homemade soups, casseroles
and fried chicken. The deli area comes well stocked with cheeses,
cold cuts and salads.
Keeping up with the changing eating habits
of families has been important to the owners and operators of
Barnes Foodland - four brothers who took over the business when
their father, Dick Barnes, died in 1979 at the age of 54.
The brothers, Bill, Mike, Pat and Greg,
in order of oldest to youngest, are celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the first Barnes grocery in August 1949 in downtown DeWitt.
"Supposedly there were 10 other
grocery stores in DeWitt when Dad opened up his," Mike said.
They were small mom-and-pop stores with just a few aisles of food.
At that time, frozen food was non-existent. Today DeWitt has two
major grocery stores.
"I just visited with someone this
week who said they shopped in the original store, and they still
shop with us after 50 years," he added.
Their mother, Virginette or Virg, still lives in DeWitt and shops
at the store. The couple raised seven children, but the two daughters
and the youngest brother decided to pursue other adventures.
"We have the typical squabbles as
brothers," Greg said. "Some people wonder how we've
done it this long. At times, you wonder how you do it. But we
all do our own thing and have our areas of the store that we concentrate
on."
Greg handles the payroll, accounting,
cashier scheduling and some of the hiring. He earned a business
degree from St. Ambrose University, Davenport. He had just graduated
from college when his father died of a heart attack.
Pat began working at the store when he
was a sophomore in high school. After high school, he was drafted.
He came back from his military duty and began working part-time
at the store while attending Scott Community College for electronics.
"I like working with my hands, and
I've always liked the grocery store business," he said.
He does a lot of the grocery buying, ordering
and some of the management.
The store has 90 employees. Their father began
with just five people.
Each year, the brothers go to grocery trade
shows in Chicago. Through that, they get new ideas, new products
and inspirations.
"We probably put on at least 10
new items each
week," Pat said. "That means we have to get rid of certain
items to find room for the new ones. We always have conversations
with our customers. In a small town, they get to know us."
Their father had been a trendsetter in
his day when he put in one of the first self-service meat departments.
"That was a gutsy decision on his
part," Mike, who handles the overall management of the store,
said.
The grocery industry tries to keep up
with the demands of very busy families for convenience, quickness
and variety.
"Rather than just competing with
other grocery stores, we are competing for the food dollar;"
Bill said.
"Twenty years ago in DeWitt, we
didn't have McDonald's or Hardee's or all the other restaurants.
It's all about instant gratification."
To keep up with modern lifestyles, the
Barnes brothers have had to do major expansion and rebuilding
twice in the past two decades. They offer all kinds of extra services
from floral to catering. And it is the only place in DeWitt that
sells liquor.
"The competitive situation demands
you stay current," Bill said. "We have a 12-foot juice
case now. You never would have seen that before. People would
have just bought frozen concentrate."
One of the best parts of the business
is watching the young people who work for them grow up.
"We’re a lot of kids’
first jobs," Mike said. "Some of those kids are doctors
and lawyers now."
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