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The Family Market in Howard is one very nice store. It serves this town of about 742 people and the surrounding area. The nearest big towns are Winfield and Independence, each about 45 miles away. Eureka is about 30 minutes north.
Julie Perkins, a hometown girl, is the pharmacist in town and took over the grocery store business in 2004 when the previous owner closed it down. For a couple years she drove to the city on weekends to buy groceries so she could resell them to locals so they wouldn’t have to drive.
In 2006, “We finally got our first grocery truck,” she said. So now groceries are delivered to the store which makes her and her family’s lives a whole lot easier.
In order to get a grocery truck to stop in Howard, she has to purchase $7,500 worth of groceries per week. So the locals have to support it. And they do.
Her pharmacy is the next building, but the two are connected with an interior walkway.
It’s a beautiful, well-stocked grocery store with good lighting. They’ve purchased a third building and will be expanding their space soon.
There’s a dandy soda fountain inside the grocery/drug store/gift shop.
Hometown girl makes good and makes her town much better.
Do you know if they have to purchase that much each week? Can they opt to have a grocery truck come every other week? I’m curious about how towns less than half the size of mine make this work. That’s about $100 per person per week to get $7,500. I’m sure there are plenty of customers from the surrounding area, but that still has to be a stretch.
When we first moved to Douglass from Wichita, all I could do was complain about the prices and available inventory at the Jack and Jill. Why were some items so much more than Walmart? Why did they have so much less to choose from? From reading some of Marci Penner’s articles I’m beginning to understand, but now I’m just amazed these small town stores can make it work at all. After visiting Courtland, KS last summer, I got an even better picture of what small town folks experience–especially without a larger city nearby. I must admit also that before my own mom had to stop driving herself to the grocery store, I didn’t really consider the necessity of having a grocery store closer than 30 minutes away. I’m thankful there are people like Julie Perkins who are willing to make it happen for their communities.
Thanks for doing this piece. We lost our store 2 or 3 years ago and since that time it’s really been a mess trying to coodinate things to reduce our trips to the nearest grocery store which is 11 miles away. Not that we have anything against the larger towns, mind you, but we’d much rather support a store in our own town. We wish Julie all the best! It would appear that she has the support of her community as well as the surrounding area. That’s what it takes to make it work.
Take note of the man standing at the counter with the cowboy hat on, and the little boy in the striped shirt standing at the soda fountain case… they seem to be the same man and boy that are seen coming from the Court House in the previous picture. Anyway, little towns and smaller communities are the true life-blood of this nation and this one lady is showing us all how it is done. Kudo’s aplenty for her and her store and this town..!!
Jenni – I just checked with Marci Penner about the grocery delivery. It is EVERY week. Julie has to order $7,500 of groceries EVERY week.