Regional retailer to locate in Ste. Genevieve

Discount chain in 21 states

By Jim Obert

Business Today

STE. GENEVIEVE -- Duckwall-ALCO Stores, a regional retailer with 176 stores in the Midwest and West, plans to open an ALCO Discount Store in Ste. Genevieve Plaza Shopping Center in May.

The store will be located in the former Country Mart building and will have about 25 employees. Country Mart moved into a new building in the shopping center last October.

According to Glen Shank, president of Duckwell-ALCO Stores Inc., the new store will offer general merchandise to include clothing, shoes, house wares, appliances, electronic equipment, hardware, toys, sporting goods, automotive supplies and garden items.

Merchandise will be supplied to the store from its distribution center in Abilene, Kan., where the company was founded in 1901.

Dennis Alesio, vice president of personnel, said company representatives will soon announce and schedule application dates for about 25 employees.

"We feel confident that we'll be able to find well qualified individuals to fill the group managers and sales associate positions," said Alesio, adding that the positions of store manager and opening assistant manager will be assigned to Ste. Genevieve from ALCO's existing management pool.

Marv Harman, Ste. Genevieve County economic developer, said the announcement by the company was long-awaited.

"I started dealing with Billy Woodruff of ALCO's real estate division in March of 2000," said Harman. "ALCO officials toured the community and the former Grandpa's building in July of 2000. We continued discussions until it appeared that Pamida was a certainty to locate here, but when that deal fell apart in December of 2000, I re-initiated discussions with ALCO."

Harman said ALCO officials, to include company president Glen Shank, visited the city last summer.

"Following that visit I was told that Ste. Genevieve was approved as a location, and that the company was interested in the building Country Mart was about to vacate."

Harman called ALCO "a class act in the retail field," and said the discount store will be a good fit for the community.

ALCO currently operates three stores in Missouri in Vandalia, Ironton and Willow Springs.

In addition to ALCO discount stores, the company operates 88 variety or specialty stores in 11 states.

Since the late 1980s, the company's strategy has been to expand by targeting smaller markets not served by other regional or national full-line retail discount chains. The stores offer about 35,000 items of merchandise.