Stocking Shelves, Restoring Hope This is a story about a young lad in Truman, Minnesota. Just barely out of high school and he has his own grocery. This is an amazing feat, and wonderful for the community of 1259 residents.
You see, they don't have a grocery store nearby, or at least they didn't until young Nick Graham, bought an old market in October of 2006. He actually leased the place for a year or so, prior to purchasing the place, because you have to be 18 years old to own property.
The amazing thing about this is the fact that the people that loaned him the money came and helped pitch in with the store so it would survive. Truman doesn't have a store nearby, and the closest store is over 14 miles away.
This is a bad thing for some the residents of the town, whom, happen to be retired folk who can no longer drive. This doesn't even tell half of the story. He approaches the business in a very old fashioned, non corporate style. He knows his customers by name, and even delivers groceries on certain days for the elderly in a local retirement home.
The way the towns people pitch in and help, and the way he allows some residents to run a tab, reminds me very much of the first job I had as a teenager. It was a small store called Pic Pac. I only worked there for a few months, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
Customer service and business just doesn't work that way anymore. This story reminds me of how things used to be, back in the good 'ol days. Probably when gas was less than $1. In fact I remember putting gas in a car for the first time, a car that would be mine a couple of years later, and gas was only .69 cents. It wouldn't certainly be nice if all businesses were run like that and gas was still that price. My how times have changed.
If you want to read the full story, you may want to check out www.americanprofile.com. It is a small magazine that gets sent to me free every week or so in the mail. This is definitely a story worth reading.
