Boulder City WANTS another Grocery Store. There are few universally “true” statements that someone can make about “everyone” wanting or not wanting on any topic, but in our opinion, this is one of the few statements that pretty much all of us residents can agree upon. Many of us who lived here when the traditional Central Market existed right along side of both a Von’s and Albertsons remember, that yes, this town has shown it CAN support more than one grocer. Why? Because it has done so in the past.
Enter the owners of that former Central Market location: Ed Cave, Grant Turner and Bret Runion. They purchased this location after the antique mall owners decided to sell and move on from that project. Prior, this had been the beloved Central Market which offered a small but solidly diverse selection of pantry staples along with frozen foods, fresh produce and a selection of meats and seafood. Maybe most delightful of all is that it contained it’s own butcher. Many of us remember being able to order in special cuts when we had a special event, and most of us raved about the service of their meat counter. Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it…
But, things went they way they went. The family sold Central Market and after a few attempts with others running that enterprise they folded, unable to maintain the business. And then the Von’s/Safeway corporation did what they did and were acquired by Albertsons. And then the Von’s location was closed (after briefly becoming a Haggen location) due to anti-trust concerns after the buy out, and then that option slowly died.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention here that this very, very old former Von’s location has been shopped around by our Chamber of Commerce and the City for a decade or more, and they have been unable to entice another grocer into that spot, a situation we’ve shared with you many times HERE. As we have said many times, the situation evolved where there was never going to be any hope that the owners of that shopping center (now anchoring the Dollar Store) was going to allow a grocer to operate in that location.
Pivoting back to current events. Trader Joe’s has been one of the names that many people have floated over the years as being something they would love to have in Boulder City. Many drive over the hill to enjoy their fresh and expansive organic produce as well as their quirky and unique selection of refrigerated and frozen brands. It’s a cult following throughout any market it seams that Trader Joe’s (T.J.’s) opens a location in. However, in the past we’ve heard from many an expert that Boulder City’s current demographics and population data don’t fit the conventional metrics that T.J. uses when evaluating a new store location.
But what we’re hearing is that things have changed. Specifically, The Trader Joe’s corporation has specifically signaled two things that might make us more appealing of a market for them:
1. They are actively wanting to expand their footprint in Nevada overall
2. They are willing to consider smaller markets than they have in the past
We spoke with Bret Runion of Desert Sun Realty as one of the owners of the former Central Market building. He tells us they have submitted a formal proposal to the corporation for review. His research is showing that we should think beyond the mere 15,000 souls who live in Boulder City, but that when you bring in the eastern side of Henderson within a 7 mile radius of us, there are 35,000 people, and within 10 miles there are 100,000. Which is a decent number. Beyond that, all of those folks have to head to the current TJ locations on Sunset or over to the Eastern/St. Rose area, and many of those folks would substantially prefer to head to our quaint little town instead.
A meaningful Facebook Group has started with already 1500 members. We encourage you to follow them HERE. The group is cautiously optimistic. One of the concerns is that as the property transitioned from a grocer into the antique mall, all of the refrigerated cases and infrastructure was removed from the building, and one assumes with the age of it, that there will be substantial renovations needed. Bret tells us that some of the larger distribution organizations can sometimes help defray those costs. it’s worth noting that our City Manager, Ned Thomas has grocery businesses also in his family background. It never hurts to have someone in such a position who knows the business.
We don’t know what will happen, but the exercise of seeing a group make a formal pitch is worthwhile, and it certainly can’t hurt. Pitching takes practice, and sometimes you have to take some “No’s” before you get a “Yes”, and again, we know we’d all sure love some options. We encourage everyone to join in the Facebook group and we’ll keep tabs on it for you here. We wish us all the best of luck on this one!
