FAMILY MARKETS RULED; STORES OFFERED DELIVERY, CREDIT

Once upon a time, before there were supermarkets, Cape Girardeau was dotted by neighborhood markets that usually extended credit to their customers and often delivered the groceries to their homes.

The city's oldest remaining example of this bygone age of consumerism is Werner's CGA Supermarket at Broadway and Henderson Street. It is a supermarket in name only compared to the likes of a Schnuck's and or Wal-Mart, but still cuts its own meat and sells fresh vegetables.

Clarence Werner and his wife Maude opened the store on Dec. 1, 1935. Back then, many of their customers were farmers who trekked to town only occasionally. They sold flour by the hundred-pound sack, and sorghum by the barrel.

As the city grew, the demand for bulk food disappeared, and the appearance of bonafide supermarkets began putting many the family-owned neighborhood markets out of business.

The list of markets that used to sustain the city's neighborhoods during the middle of the century is long:

Blechle's, located only a short distance west of Werner's on Broadway;

Vandeven's, which occupied the building on the southeast corner of Broadway and Pacific Street;

Blaylock's on North Missouri;

Fairway Market No. 1 and No. 2 on North Main Street;

Farrow's and later Schoen's market at Koch and Bloomfield streets;

E.E. Vogel's at West End Boulevard and Bloomfield Street;

Hirsch's Thriftway, which sold groceries and dry goods at Good Hope and Sprigg Streets;

Ruh's on Good Hope Street;

And Dietiker's No. 1 on South Fountain Street and No. 2 at LaCruz and South Sprigg Street.

Lane's market on South Sprigg in Smelterville was known for selling the coldest watermelon in town. Other groceries were Hargis' on Cape Rock Drive; Merhle's on lower Independence Street; Ford's on South Sprigg and Elm streets; Model Grocery on Broadway near Frederick Street; Shoppers Warehouse on Broadway near Ellis Street; and Child's on Emerald Street.

Two of the best-known neighborhood markets were Fischer's at West End Boulevard and Harmony Street, and Stubbs' Pak-A-Snak at 1600 Independence Street.

Fischer's, begun by the father of City Manager J. Ronald Fischer, had a brisk credit and delivery business, and also operated a poultry processing plant in another building behind the store.

At one time, the Fischer family operated three stores. The main store closed in 1987 after more than 50 years of operation.

The Pak-A-Snak, owned by the late Porter Stubbs, was especially busy on Sundays. It remained open while most stores closed because of the city's Blue Laws, which banned the sale of most items on Sunday.

Underpriced by the supermarkets, most of these stores had no choice but to go out of business. Meanwhile, convenience stores stepped in to pick up the neighborhood trade.

Werner's somehow has survived, largely through stubbornness and by maintaining its services to customers who have remained faithful to the store through the years.

"I still get some people who trade here on credit," said Kenneth Werner, who runs the store mostly by himself now that his father is gone.

He has been working around the store since he was in elementary school. Next to the old cash register is an antiquated machine manufactured by the McCaskey company for storing the customers tickets. It is still in use.

"Everything here is old," Werner says.

Some customers pay their bill by the week, some by the month. Many who take advantage of the delivery service are elderly people who, Werner says, "don't like to go out in those big stores."

Those stores carry many, many brands of products that Werner has to limit to three or four because of space.

Frozen foods have made a big change in the business, he said. "Years ago, the only time people ate ice cream was the Fourth of July."

But besides credit and delivery, Werner says stores like his still offer one advantage: "close contact with the regular customers."

It's not a lucrative business if it ever was, but Werner says, "I can still make a living out of it ... If my health holds out, I'll probably continue doing it."

Juanita Ratliff and her husband Carl started Ratliff's Grocery at 2106 S. Sprigg Street in 1950. When floods washed through the store twice in 1973, they bought another store at 1007 S. Sprigg St.

Juanita has run the store with the help of her children and grandchildren since Carl died in 1981.

It is a store much like Werner's, small with a meat counter at the rear. Though Ratliff's no longer delivers groceries, credit is extended. "I don't know what some of them would do without me," she said matter-of-factly.

Behind the counter is a note from May Greene students thanking her for reading to them.

She spends a good amount of her time explaining to small children exactly what they can and can't buy for their quarter.

A lot of her customers don't like the packaged meats usually available at convenience stores. "I slice it while they're waiting," she said.

If it's one slice of bologna and one slice of cheese the customer wants, that's OK with Ratliff.

A bologna sandwich sells for 50 cents.

Her meat counter contains "salt meat," which is uncured bacon used for cooking with beans and vegetables.

When one steady customer called her on a Sunday needing salt meat, Ratliff went down to the store and got her some.

"She said I had the best salt meat in town."

She works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week, and usually goes home even later because she also cleans up.

Ratliff, too, concedes that she can't begin to compete with the big stores' prices. In fact, she buys much of her foodstuffs from Wal-Mart and Shop 'n Save at a tax-exempt rate.

Most of her business these days comes from selling candy, potato chips and soft drinks, but Ratliff views herself as someone who has a responsibility to the neighborhood.

Recently, her son wanted his 72-year-old mother to sell the business and slow down. At the last minute, she balked.

"I'm going to work as long as I can," she told him.