`MATTER OF TRUST': GROCERY SERVES FOR FOUR DECADES

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- "Put this on the tab, Mrs. Ratliff."

The customer, in his 60s, held up soda and a box of crackers in front of the small counter.

Juanita Ratliff reached behind the counter and thumbed through a stack of charge books. She duly recorded the transaction.

"We're probably in the minority of grocery stores that issue credit," said Ratliff. "But I know most of these people and you can count on them to pay their bill each month it's a matter of trust."

Ratliff's Grocery has been providing necessities to people in Cape Girardeau for more than four decades. "A lot of these people are second- and third-generation customers," said Ratliff. "They know me and I know them.

"We've been here forever, it seems," said Ratliff, who has operated a grocery store for the past 40 years, 17 of them at the present address at 1007 South Sprigg. "I've been around a small grocery store operation most of my life," she said.

Ratliff is a second-generation grocer; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Rogers, operated a small grocery and fruit market in the 400 block of Broadway for a number of years.

"They owned a building at 2106 South Sprigg," she said. "They leased the building several years, but moved the grocery operation there in the 1940s."

The Rogers decided to retire in 1950, and the Ratliffs assumed operation of the store in December of that year.

Her husband, the late Carl Grover Ratliff, a native Kentuckian, worked at the Broadway Fruit Market and later at the Ratliff store. He also worked at Central Packing and White Cross, allowing his wife to basically manage the grocery store.

"We moved the store to its present location in 1973," said Ratliff. "We suffered through flood conditions several times. In 1973 the flood was really bad. We had an opportunity to acquire this location, and we took it."

A store had been operated at 1007 South Sprigg since at least the early 1920s, said Ratliff. Southeast Missourian files show the building has been known as The Ravenstein Grocery, Hawn Grocery, Schaaf Grocer, Vincent's Grocery and Henson's Grocery.

The Ratliffs obtained the building from the Schaafs.

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. "I don't know how old they are, but they've been here a long time," Ratliff said.

"We're crowded sometimes," she said. "We were flooded with people here on New Year's Day. I think we must have been the only store in town which had hog jowl and black-eyed peas left."

Ratliff anticipated big sales on the traditional good-luck fare that is popular on New Year's Day menus. She was ready for the onslaught of customers.

"We had calls from all over town," she said.

"Hog jowl and salt bacon are two of the big meat items at the store, and another big drawing card for us is sandwiches," said Ratliff. "During the summer people line up here about noon to order sandwiches. We fix any kind of sandwich, but one of the favorites is bologna and cheese."

Some people refer to small grocery stores as mom-and-pop operations. To people who live in the vicinity of a small, neighborhood market, they are an important part of Americana.

"Small grocery stores which provide delivery service and credit to its customers have become rare breeds," said Ratliff. "The increased popularity of convenience store-service station operations and the big supermarket chains have all but eliminated the small grocer.

"But we feature a main line of groceries, pet food, and the usual lines of candy, soda pop and frozen treats," said Ratliff. "And although our prices are not quite as good as the supermarkets, we're very competitive with most convenience stores."

Not many people buy all of their groceries at Ratliff's or any small store, but a few do. For most, the store is a friendly place to pick up a few items.

"We have the basics," said Ratliff. "We offer canned goods, salt meat, lunch meat of all kinds, fruits, chips and vegetables. There are a few people who buy most of their groceries here."

Ratliff keeps tabs on her inventory with a small computer. "I check our supplies every Wednesday, place an order, and have them in stock the next day," she said.

"The grocery business has been good for the Ratliffs," she said. "We raised seven children."

One of her sons, Dale Ratliff, is serving in the Middle East. In civilian life he is a member of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Other children are Carlos Ratliff of Ratliff Nursing Home and Accounting Service; Larry Ratliff of Columbia, who works with 3M Co.; Connie Reed, who works at Southeast Missouri Hospital; Nina Kitchen and Roger McNeely, both of St. Louis; and Scott McNeely of Jackson.

"I'd be lost without the grocery store," said Ratliff. "I enjoy talking to people, and I enjoy helping people."