End of an era as another grocery store closing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Dating back more than 100 years, the corner of J Street and 16th Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids has been home to a grocery store.

The Dlask Bros. Grocery & Market, in existence around the turn of the 20th Century, gave way to others, including Me Too, SunMart and Save-A-Lot, reconfigured with a parking lot in front, rather than directly on the corner as the Dlask store had been.

Residents of the working class neighborhood, settled by Czech immigrants and others, could walk to the store, but that will change as Save-A-Lot will close before the end of this year.

Owner Jim McVeigh plans to retire after a long run with the store, the last of the Save-A-Lot groceries in Iowa.

Save-A-Lot is one of the largest discount grocers in the United States.

“My body is tired, my back is tired,” McVeigh, 54, said of working in a grocery store since the age of 14, starting with his parents in Missouri. “I’m looking forward to taking my wife on vacation.”

He and his father, Greg McVeigh, purchased a store in Tama/Toledo in 1995, but after an issue with their landlord, bought the former SunMart, 1625 J St. SW, with business partner Don Conklin, when the building had been vacant for a year or so.

“The ceilings were falling in,” McVeigh recalled. “Raccoons were getting in a hole in the garage door out back.”

After investing in the building, they opened as a Save-A-Lot in 1997. Originally store manager, McVeigh purchased the business after his father died in 2016 and Conklin in 2017.

Currently, the store employs 18, including some who have worked there for more than a decade.

“I’ve had a lot of long-term employees,” McVeigh said. “I’ve been lucky with that.”

He tried to sell the store outright for more than a year, with no takers. Differing from other chain stores, each Save-A-Lot is individually owned, which proved challenging in his quest to sell the business.

So McVeigh plans to close the store sometime before Christmas this year, and the building will be leased to a national retailer that will offer some grocery items, he said, “to cover the food desert situation.”

The DropInn Resale Store next door will remain open.

“When we opened our doors all those years ago, we were just two people, newly married and hoping to succeed in building a business,” McVeigh and his wife, Robin, wrote in a statement regarding the closure. “Together, we raised our two children among the aisles, and it has been a joy to watch them grow alongside so many of you. Over the years, you’ve not just been customers to us; you’ve become friends, sharing in our lives and our community and we are grateful for the support you’ve shown us.”

“As we step away, we know our community will soon welcome a well-known national store that will also offer grocery items,” they added. “While we’re excited for the new opportunities this brings, we will deeply miss the personal connections we’ve shared with all of you.”

Customer Mike Randall, who lives just a few blocks away, stopped by the Save-A-Lot on Nov. 26 for milk, bread, hamburger and other staples.

“It’s convenient,” said Randall, 75, adding that the prices are reasonable, too.

When the Save-A-Lot closes, he and his wife will “go back to Wally World,” he said, the nickname for Walmart, with a store in southwest Cedar Rapids that is a considerable drive from where they live.

Still, Randall said he understands why McVeigh is closing shop.

“We like Jim, but he wants to retire,” he said.

This is the second working class neighborhood to lose a grocery store in Cedar Rapids this year.

Nothing has yet replaced the Hy-Vee store, 1556 First Ave. NE, which closed in June.

Related: Demonstrators call for Hy-Vee boycott

As the Save-A-Lot store prepares to close, McVeigh has been hearing from longtime customers who have been wishing him well in retirement.

Even as some of the farewells have nearly brought him to tears, “if nobody cared,” McVeigh said, “that would be even more heartbreaking.”