“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• TRACY BECAME A ONE-GROCERY-STORE TOWN THE SUMMER OF THIS YEAR WHEN THE DOWNTOWN GROCERY STORE CLOSED.
A deal is expected to be finalized whereby Bruce Schelhaas and another buyer take over ownership and management of the Chuck’s Jack & Jill supermarket on west Morgan St.
Jack & Jill owner Chuck Parks said in a Tuesday telephone interview that he preferred not to comment publicly, and referred questions to Schelhaas.
Schelhaas said that the Jack & Jill store is being purchased by Nash-Finch, the grocery wholesaler that supplies Jack & Jill. In turn, Tony Bosch of Luverne, is buying the Jack & Jill store from Nash-Finch. Bosch is also buying out the Schelhaas family at the Tracy Food Center. Schelhaas is to join Bosch as a minority owner of the former Jack & Jill Store.
Bosch owns grocery stores in Luveme, Rock Rapids, Iowa, and Brandon, Flandreau and Hartford, SD.
Schelhaas met with Jack and Jill employees on Monday to inform them of the planned changes.
The pending sale comes 16 months after the Tracy Food Center opened in the former John’s Super Valu Store on Third Street. The Tracy Economic Development Authority and Tracy Area Development Corporation both assisted with financing the operation in an effort to keep a grocery store operating in downtown Tracy.
In an interview with the Headlight-Herald, Dawn and Bruce Schelhaas expressed mixed feelings about the planned changes. They say it was their dream to have their own store. When they committed to the Tracy store, they were confident Tracy was big enough to support two stores. Based on updated projections, new data and a year of experience, they say the two grocerystore scenario is no longer realistic.
Bruce said that while the Tracy Food Center is “doing fine” for now, there is no margin for error. He said it is apparent two grocery stores, one small and one large, cannot both operate profitably in the Tracy market.
• Last week’s answer: Tracy State Bank donned a different name, Minnwest Bank South, in 2001.
