SCHAPER'S IGA IN JACKSON BOUGHT BY FOOD GIANT

JACKSON, Mo. -- Schaper's IGA Foodliner officially became a Food Giant Friday.

The sale of the supermarket at 528 W. Main St. occurred last week and became official Friday.

Jim Maevers of Maevers Management Inc., owner of Schaper's IGA Foodliner, said the competitive situation among grocery stores in Jackson dictated the decision to sell the store to Food Giant, an employee-owned company with 84 stores.

"We couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel for an independent or single operator to make the location work," he said.

Food Giant will have a better chance to compete because with a store in Cape Girardeau it can consolidate costs and push "loyalty marketing," a coupon system which rewards shoppers for shopping stores owned by the same company.

Maevers said his company will focus on their Save-A-Lot stores in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Sikeston. "We're going to support those and be very involved in their operation."

Schaper's originally was opened by Julius Schaper uptown in 1934. The Schapers built the first supermarket in Jackson in 1948 on West Main Street, and the second in 1960 in the location currently occupied by Delmonico's restaurant in the Schaper Plaza.

The store's current building in the plaza was built in 1970.

Bernard Schaper sold the business in 1976 to employees Lester Maevers and Milton Grebe. Lester Maevers bought out his partner in the mid-'80s. Brothers Jim and Tim Maevers bought out their father's interest in Schaper's IGA Foodliner in 1998.

When the sign is changed to Food Giant it will be the first time in 66 years a Schaper store isn't selling groceries to Jackson. A woman who heard about the sale told Bernard Schaper she went home and cried. "There's some nostalgia there," he said. "It's a change. Maybe it needed to be."

Food Giant employees bought all the stores March 1 from Ken Storey, who founded the company.

Jerry Callis, Food Giant's Sikeston-based area supervisor, said the employees conducted an inventory of the IGA store Thursday night at 8 and reopened as usual Friday morning. He said no major changes are expected to be made in the way the store does business right away.

"It will carry on the way it is."

All the Schaper's employees were given the opportunity to work for Food Giant, a company with stores throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.

Maevers said the sale will give the Schaper's employees more opportunities for advancement.

"It was a tough decision but one that had to be made," he said.