Area grocery store will close this week

COLERIDGE – Ken’s Hometown Market will be closing its doors Thursday, but a local investor group is discussing the possibility of re-opening it under new management.

Inventory at the grocery store has been dwindling since owners Brenda Whalen and James Roberts announced last month the store would be closing.

“A few customers bought all their groceries there but most bought groceries out of town,” Roberts said. “You have to have community buy-in. They’re not very happy with us but we can’t keep throwing money away.”

Whalen and Roberts had been wrestling with the decision of closing the store for nearly a year.

Employees from Ken’s will make the transfer to working at Laurel’s Hometown Market, owned by Whalen and Roberts since 2021. The Laurel location will continue to deliver groceries to individual customers in Coleridge as previously arranged.

The Coleridge grocery store’s building is owned by an investment group - Coleridge Grocery LLC - under the leadership of Regg Pehrson, Laurel, who approached Whalen and Roberts two years ago about operating Ken’s Hometown Market.

At that time, Whalen and Roberts bought the Coleridge grocery store and its inventory, and leased the building from the investors group, with hopes to be in a position to purchase the structure and continue to do business after two years.

“Unfortunately, utilities, payroll, the high cost of groceries, taxes, and maintenance on the building and equipment, have been too high to continue,” according to the business’ social media post announcing the closure.

Since the announcement, the investors group has met to discuss possibilities of re-opening the grocery store under new management or making the building available for another business opportunity.

Another meeting is set for the end of August, Pehrson said. “We’re open to a little of everything,” he said. “We’d love to keep a grocery store, but if we can’t open it as a grocery store, maybe there’s other opportunities.”

He said the investors group is made up of about 75 people. The vast majority - about 90 percent - are individuals from the Coleridge area.

Pehrson said anyone interested in the building or joining the investors group, should contact him.