SOUTH CAPE AGAIN WILL HAVE GROCERY

Cape Girardeau's two Save-A-Lot stores will close and a new one will be born next week, a consolidation that will give the city's south side a grocery store after a two-year absence.

The Save-A-Lot store at 396 N. Kingshighway will close Sunday night, the other store at 19 N. Spanish St. will close Tuesday night, and the new store at 121 S. Sprigg St. will open its doors for the first time at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The consolidation of the grocery stores announced in June is occurring approximately two weeks behind schedule.

The completion of the process is heralded by people who have been working to upgrade the area.

"The people in that area deserve to have a grocery story, and I would think they would be elated about it," said City Councilman Melvin Gateley, who has pushed the city to pay more attention to the south side.

Ted Coalter, president of the Haarig Area Development Corp., said the organization has been working to get a grocery store back in the neighborhood since Schnuck's closed at the location two years ago.

"People needed a grocery store," he said. "It's a bond that pulls people together."

Many who live in the southeastern part of the city have transportation problems that will be partially solved by the arrival of a grocery store. The community backing for the store is strong, Coalter said.

"I live in west Cape, but I will certainly support that grocery store," said Coalter.

Don Greenwood, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, has mixed emotions about the consolidation because the Spanish Street store was only a couple of blocks from his house. "There's a lot to be said when you can go to a grocery store on foot," he said.

But he said bringing a grocery store to the neighborhood was near the top of the list of goals set by the Cape Girardeau Community Pride Coalition, an organization whose membership includes groups like the Haarig corporation and the DNA.

"I'm glad they didn't just leave town," he said.

Re-establishing a supermarket on South Sprigg Street is part of a larger rejuvenation in the area, Gateley said.

"All this is coming together with our Main Street program, the River Campus and the possibility in the spring of old St. Francis Hospital coming down and new living quarters going there," he said.

Gateley referred to interest in the national downtown revitalization program called Main Street, to Southeast Missouri State University's plans to turn the old St. Vincent's Seminary nearby into a campus for the performing and visual arts, and to a plan to raze the vacant hospital and build housing at the site.

Plans for the River Campus were a factor in the company's decision to move to the Sprigg Street location, said Tim Maevers, the Save-A-Lot store's owner and general manager.

The Sprigg Street location had been occupied by a grocery store since 1959 until the Schnuck's store closed in July 1997. A National food store originally opened at the corner, expanded and had a name change to Del-Farm. Schnucks purchased the Del-Farm National chain in 1995.

Maevers said the consolidation offers a central location "for the convenience of shoppers."

Save-A-Lot's formula is based on limited selection and everyday low prices, he said. It is a self-service store where customers bag their own groceries.

Maevers said the new store will be exactly like the other two with the exception of expanded produce and frozen food sections. The store will offer a full line of fresh, smoked and frozen meats and Supervalu's private label brands.

Inventories at the two stores closing are being allowed to run down while the new store has been stocked with fresh goods.

The sales area of the store will occupy 11,300 square feet of space, leaving another 16,500 square feet of the building to another tenant that has not yet made a final commitment.

The stores are owned by Maevers Food Inc. of Jackson, which also owns the Sikeston Save-A-Lot, Jackson Save-A-Lot and Schaper's IGA in Jackson.

They are part of a 750-store national Save-A-Lot chain headquartered in St. Louis. The company is a subsidiary of Supervalu.

Save-A-Lot is leasing the new building but owns the Spanish Street building. Maevers said plans for the Spanish Street building have not been decided. Save-A-Lot leased its building on North Kingshighway.