‘We were begging someone to come in here’
By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
A requiem is underway as you read this for the Daniels Foods Sentry, 1260 W. Main St in Whitewater.
The store is closing on Dec. 14, and Whitewater – a community of almost 15,000 people with a university – will be without a grocery store.
“To shutter the store has been in the works for a long time,” General Manager Ken Riley said. “We’ve been actively trying to sell the store for two and a half years – maybe three.”
Riley said the first focus of Daniels Foods, which also owns two Sentry stories in Janesville and another in Walworth, was to sell to someone who would keep the Whitewater location a grocery store.
Riley said a desire existed to keep jobs in Whitewater, and said discussions occurred with four different wholesalers and 10 different retailers about acquiring the business.
“We own the building, and we were willing to work out very favorable lease terms in order to get something in town,” Riley said.
A number of factors contributed to the store’s closing. Walmart is the main culprit.
The Whitewater Walmart sits adjacent to Sentry at 1362 West Main St. and expanded to become a Super Center with a grocery section about five years ago.
“We felt an immediate impact, and we were attempting to ride it out for a period of time,” Riley said. “We owned the building. We did things to keep cash flowing and keep the doors open. It’s not what you want for return on inventory.”
Riley said Sentry lost 40 percent of its business when Walmart expanded.
Riley also cited other factors. The Whitewater Sentry is a large store at 50,000 square feet. It previously housed a Super Saver when built by Fleming Companies in 1997. The Daniels family acquired the property in 2001.
“The bottom line is the store is too big,” Riley said. “There’s no way to downsize it without putting a significant amount of dollars into it, and that doesn’t mean they’re still going to make it.”
Riley said Sentry did not necessarily receive a considerable boost from the university. The population of Whitewater, according to the 2010 Census, is 14,390. That figure is everyone who is off-campus and lives in the community.
“On campus, there’s a lot of people that, on weekends, when they come back, Mom and Dad have them loaded-up with groceries,” Riley said. “I know that because my son went to school here and we did the same thing.”
The web site of the Whitewater Sentry points out that the store accepted UW-Whitewater Purple Points. The store donated $15,000 or more back to the university through the program each year.
Purchasing power and labor costs also factored into the decision to close the store. Riley said a store like Walmart or Woodman’s Foods can make purchases by the truckload when Sentry does so by the pallet.
Using meat as an example, Sentry employed four butchers and two wrappers at one point in its meat department. Meat in Walmart’s grocery section comes pre-packed.
Consumers in Whitewater are also accustomed to driving to Delavan or Janesville to visit other stores, such as Lowe’s or Kohls, and often shop for groceries during those trips.
The Facebook page for Daniels Foods Whitewater Sentry – www.facebook.com/ danielswhitewater – resembles the sign-in at a funeral. Well-wishers are expressing gratitude and remorse. The store is posting its gratitude to a customer base that seems to feel as though it let a city down.
Getting another grocery store in Whitewater is at best, an uncertain proposition that will entail a lot of expense and is defined by its variables.
Riley said real estate for such an endeavor is at a premium, if it exists at all. A group wishing to build or lease a brick and mortar outlet, buy fixtures, secure inventory and retain staff will need deep pockets.
The Daniels family has been in the grocery business for 93 years and is well-respected in the industry. Riley has been with the company since 1970. The conclusion, verified by actions, is the retail climate in Whitewater is currently inhospitable to the traditional grocer.
“We were begging someone to come in here,’ Riley said. “I wanted to retain jobs and retain a store for the community. Everyone was scared because of the size (of the store) and having Walmart next door.”
