Earlier this month, the Pizza Ranch and the Lincolway Grill closed in Jefferson. To what do you attribute these closings? Perhaps the poor economy?
14 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I think it was past due. How has the community been able to support as many restaurants as they have? Guess when you are limited to when and where you can buy groceries, you tend to eat out a lot more? Hopefully Jefferson will try to attract another grocery store in the future rather than another diner.
With the demise of Pizza Ranch and Lincolnway Grill, it appears that Casey's and Kum & Go have moved solidly into the top 5 of restaurants in Jefferson.
It does appear that "restaurant row" in Jefferson is Highway 4. Look at the choice of eateries on Elm Street now. You have Subway north of the tracks, then south of the tracks you have Casey's General Store, Dairy Queen, and Kum & Go. You have to admit, it's hard to compete with those juggernauts of fine dining. You can get breakfast, lunch and supper at Casey's and Kum & Go.
Take-out is the dining of choice in Jefferson. Sit-down style restaurants will die one by one, if for one reason...the townfolk of Jefferson just don't like each other, certainly not enough to dine in the same room together. Rush in and out of Casey's for a couple slices of pizza...no problem. Sit down for an hour at Pizza Ranch...some idiot or wannabe snob will come in...a big problem.
It's the people of Jefferson that are the problem. Look at the Belltower Festival. It's the best that Jefferson has to offer and it's been a failure for years now. Stupidity (generational), arrogance and snobbery (a real laugher there), and more than their share of low-lifes makes Jefferson a bad mix for for any decent restaurant.
Jefferson needs to do whatever is needed to get a second grocery store in place as soon as possible. Give them the land for free, do not tax their place of business, and do whatever else they want. A community the size of Jefferson should consider a single grocery store a death knell. What are you going to do if Fareway decides it's not profitable in Jefferson? I can't even believe that we put up with a store that won't open on Sundays. If they move out of town this place is history. Do you think anyone would come here at all if we didn't have a grocery store? This is not well thought out.
I agree with the anon. poster above about the generational stupidity, arrogance, and snobbery that pervade Jefferson, Ia. This is not the place it used to be, and those attitudes do nothing but affirm a have/have not pecking order that will do nothing but take this community down. It's been working so far.
Pizza Ranch can be summed up as a result of a collision between a Pizza Hut and a KFC. It's a midwest chain restaurant that has both pizza and chicken. Peruse their website at http://www.pizzaranch.com.
I'm afraid you'll have to accept one grocery store (closed on Sundays) as opposed to none.
Independent stores can't buy in quantities to make them remotely competitive to Fareway, even if they join a buying cooperative. While you would have a second store, you'd only go there on Sundays and complain about the 'highway robbery' prices every time. That won't last long and no fool would invest the two million minimum to start that store. In fact, most independents today are just hanging on.
This leaves trying to attract HyVee, the only other corporate chain willing to work in rural Iowa. Unfortunately, Jefferson doesn't have enough population to support both Fareway and HyVee and HyVee is very aware of this. Free land and no taxes won't swing that pendulum.
Accepting the economics of living in small town Iowa in 2009 may not come easy, but it seems little good comes from fretting about it. If you travel much, you'll agree your groceries are cheap at Fareway and the selection is good. Meat counter is hard to beat.
I live in a nearby town with both Fareway and HyVee and can't remember the last time we needed something on Sunday. Maybe a year ago? We just plan ahead enough and buy what we need before Sunday. HyVee's prices are so much higher we can't bring ourselves to go there.
Now restaurants and snobbery are different subjects altogether, but my post is already long enough :)
I agree with the above posts. As far as grocery stores go, the best that Jefferson will do is Fareway and convenience stores. As far as restaurants go, well, let's just give up on anything close to a decent restaurant. It's never going to happen.
What might make a go of it in Jefferson is a specialty food shop, something run out of person's home. Near where I live is a "Pasta To Go" place. An Italian woman runs this out of her house. Her mother came over from Italy and now the daughter uses her recipes for making many different fresh pastas and sauces. She's been doing this for a few decades now. She probably doesn't make a fortune doing all the work herself, but she does make a living.
But, I wouldn't be surprised that the powers that be in Jefferson wouldn't allow such place to exist unless it's run from a retail spot instead from someone's home. Most people's home kitchens (not counting the meth houses in Jefferson) are cleaner than restaurant kitchens. And, if there are concerns about how safe food is, just look what convenience stores sell. I seriously doubt that a rat could live more than a couple months on Casey's food before having a massive coronary.
Virtually everyone from Jefferson I talk to tells me that when they want to go out to eat, they go out-of-town. They don't even consider using one of Jefferson's restaurants. With this kind of loyalty, it is only a matter of time until all retail units within the community will fail.
Years ago, locals shopped locally as a way of maintaining the status quo. This latest generation shows no interest in doing this, and as a result there is almost no shopping being done in Jefferson - all that money is going somewhere else.
Perhaps we could start up some kind of "dead pool" where we select the business we feel will fail next. What do you think?
I know our family would dine at Hardee's if there was one available. Pizza Hut is a preferred restaurant too. Guess our family will enjoy some family time together traveling out of county for a meal at one of those places.
Thank the penny picnhers of Jtown for the demise of Super Valu. It was 2 cents higher on a can of soup, but had a deli, was open 24/7 INCLUDING holidays, as well as cold beverages. That extra few cents here and there was too much, so now the genius penny pinchers can drive to Carroll or Boone to save a few cents or when they need the last few items for a holiday. Support your locals businesses or they will disappear. Scranton tried reviving their own grocery store a few years back, and the locals still went to Fareway. Bitch all you want, you created the situation. Id be scared to invest in a store here, be worse than investing in the stock market.
14 comments:
I think it was past due. How has the community been able to support as many restaurants as they have? Guess when you are limited to when and where you can buy groceries, you tend to eat out a lot more? Hopefully Jefferson will try to attract another grocery store in the future rather than another diner.
With the demise of Pizza Ranch and Lincolnway Grill, it appears that Casey's and Kum & Go have moved solidly into the top 5 of restaurants in Jefferson.
It does appear that "restaurant row" in Jefferson is Highway 4. Look at the choice of eateries on Elm Street now. You have Subway north of the tracks, then south of the tracks you have Casey's General Store, Dairy Queen, and Kum & Go. You have to admit, it's hard to compete with those juggernauts of fine dining. You can get breakfast, lunch and supper at Casey's and Kum & Go.
Take-out is the dining of choice in Jefferson. Sit-down style restaurants will die one by one, if for one reason...the townfolk of Jefferson just don't like each other, certainly not enough to dine in the same room together. Rush in and out of Casey's for a couple slices of pizza...no problem. Sit down for an hour at Pizza Ranch...some idiot or wannabe snob will come in...a big problem.
It's the people of Jefferson that are the problem. Look at the Belltower Festival. It's the best that Jefferson has to offer and it's been a failure for years now. Stupidity (generational), arrogance and snobbery (a real laugher there), and more than their share of low-lifes makes Jefferson a bad mix for for any decent restaurant.
Jefferson needs to do whatever is needed to get a second grocery store in place as soon as possible. Give them the land for free, do not tax their place of business, and do whatever else they want. A community the size of Jefferson should consider a single grocery store a death knell. What are you going to do if Fareway decides it's not profitable in Jefferson? I can't even believe that we put up with a store that won't open on Sundays. If they move out of town this place is history. Do you think anyone would come here at all if we didn't have a grocery store? This is not well thought out.
I agree with the anon. poster above about the generational stupidity, arrogance, and snobbery that pervade Jefferson, Ia. This is not the place it used to be, and those attitudes do nothing but affirm a have/have not pecking order that will do nothing but take this community down. It's been working so far.
I can understand a Lincolnway Grill but what the hell is a Pizza Ranch?
Pizza Ranch can be summed up as a result of a collision between a Pizza Hut and a KFC. It's a midwest chain restaurant that has both pizza and chicken. Peruse their website at http://www.pizzaranch.com.
I'm afraid you'll have to accept one grocery store (closed on Sundays) as opposed to none.
Independent stores can't buy in quantities to make them remotely competitive to Fareway, even if they join a buying cooperative. While you would have a second store, you'd only go there on Sundays and complain about the 'highway robbery' prices every time. That won't last long and no fool would invest the two million minimum to start that store. In fact, most independents today are just hanging on.
This leaves trying to attract HyVee, the only other corporate chain willing to work in rural Iowa. Unfortunately, Jefferson doesn't have enough population to support both Fareway and HyVee and HyVee is very aware of this. Free land and no taxes won't swing that pendulum.
Accepting the economics of living in small town Iowa in 2009 may not come easy, but it seems little good comes from fretting about it. If you travel much, you'll agree your groceries are cheap at Fareway and the selection is good. Meat counter is hard to beat.
I live in a nearby town with both Fareway and HyVee and can't remember the last time we needed something on Sunday. Maybe a year ago? We just plan ahead enough and buy what we need before Sunday. HyVee's prices are so much higher we can't bring ourselves to go there.
Now restaurants and snobbery are different subjects altogether, but my post is already long enough :)
I agree with the above posts. As far as grocery stores go, the best that Jefferson will do is Fareway and convenience stores. As far as restaurants go, well, let's just give up on anything close to a decent restaurant. It's never going to happen.
What might make a go of it in Jefferson is a specialty food shop, something run out of person's home. Near where I live is a "Pasta To Go" place. An Italian woman runs this out of her house. Her mother came over from Italy and now the daughter uses her recipes for making many different fresh pastas and sauces. She's been doing this for a few decades now. She probably doesn't make a fortune doing all the work herself, but she does make a living.
But, I wouldn't be surprised that the powers that be in Jefferson wouldn't allow such place to exist unless it's run from a retail spot instead from someone's home. Most people's home kitchens (not counting the meth houses in Jefferson) are cleaner than restaurant kitchens. And, if there are concerns about how safe food is, just look what convenience stores sell. I seriously doubt that a rat could live more than a couple months on Casey's food before having a massive coronary.
Virtually everyone from Jefferson I talk to tells me that when they want to go out to eat, they go out-of-town. They don't even consider using one of Jefferson's restaurants. With this kind of loyalty, it is only a matter of time until all retail units within the community will fail.
Years ago, locals shopped locally as a way of maintaining the status quo. This latest generation shows no interest in doing this, and as a result there is almost no shopping being done in Jefferson - all that money is going somewhere else.
Perhaps we could start up some kind of "dead pool" where we select the business we feel will fail next. What do you think?
Let's do it! Get a list of businesses posted somewhere on the blog and let everyone vote.
I know our family would dine at Hardee's if there was one available. Pizza Hut is a preferred restaurant too. Guess our family will enjoy some family time together traveling out of county for a meal at one of those places.
OK everybody, get on the dead pool and select your failed business of the year!
We may need your help, as the local paper does not acknowledge business closings.
Thank the penny picnhers of Jtown for the demise of Super Valu. It was 2 cents higher on a can of soup, but had a deli, was open 24/7 INCLUDING holidays, as well as cold beverages. That extra few cents here and there was too much, so now the genius penny pinchers can drive to Carroll or Boone to save a few cents or when they need the last few items for a holiday. Support your locals businesses or they will disappear. Scranton tried reviving their own grocery store a few years back, and the locals still went to Fareway. Bitch all you want, you created the situation. Id be scared to invest in a store here, be worse than investing in the stock market.
Jim's SuperValu also featured a bakery, and I believe catering services.
When I am visiting Jefferson from out of town, usually on weekends, it seems very inconvenient to have no place to shop.
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