NEW BUSINESS: NEW OWNER, NEW NAME

New owners now occupy the former Ratliff's Grocery Store at 1007 S. Sprigg St.

The name has changed, but the service will remain the same at "The New Store," which opened more than a week ago.

"We'll continue to provide necessities to people," said Walter White. "We feature a basic line of groceries -- canned goods, salt, meat, lunch meats, fruits, chips and vegetables."

"And, penny candy," adds Rosetta Jackson-White.

Walter and Rosetta Jackson-White re-opened the small neighborhood grocery Dec. 4.

Ratliff's Grocery provided necessities to people in Cape Girardeau for more than four decades. The customer list included a lot of second- and third-generation customers.

Ratliff's Neighborhood Grocery closed earlier this year when Juanita Ratliff, owner of the store since 1950, gave up its operations because of health reasons.

The look of the store will remain the same. The building is not a large one - about 18-by-25 feet for display and 18-by-12 feet for storage. Shelves line both sides of the modest store, with two rows of shelves down the middle. There are two old but reliable soda-pop machines in the store.

"And, we will continue to fix sandwiches," said White.

A big draw for the Ratliff Store was sandwiches.

The Ratliffs fixed any kind of sandwiches for customers, but the favorite was bologna and cheese.

"We'll have bologna sandwiches, Polish sausage sandwiches and cornbread and beans," said White.

The Ratliffs -- Juanita Ratliff, and the late Carl Grover -- assumed the grocery of Mrs. Ratliff's parents at 2106 S. Sprigg in 1950.

The store was moved to its present site 25 years ago, in 1973, to avoid consistent flooding problems at the former address.

A store has operated at the 1007 S. Sprigg for more than 75 years, under various names -- The Ravenstein Grocery, Hawn Grocery, Vincent's Grocery, Henson's Grocery, Schaaf Grocer and Ratliff's Store. The Ratliffs obtained the building from the Schaafs.

"The New Store" will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It will be closed on Sunday.