Remember when … downtown had a grocery store?

Story by Chris Graham

OK, so technically the new grocery store on West Beverley Street isn’t in Downtown Staunton. “Downtown is two blocks that way,” Brian Wiedemann said, pointing east toward City Hall from just outside the new George Bowers Grocery, which is opening Nov. 1 at 614 W. Beverley St. in a location that might as well be downtown, it’s so close.

More importantly for residents of the packed residential area just west of downtown, it’s within walking distance – which is probably what attracted George Bowers to the location back in the 1880s.

“Close application to his customers’ interests is the foundation of Mr. George Bowers’ great success,” reads an entry in the 1901 edition of Staunton’s Business Men of Note on Bowers, a New Yorker who opened his grocery on West Beverley in 1881.

Wiedemann is one of four partners in the grocery, and is the link to the Bowers past, as he is, like Bowers, a transplanted New Yorker. Wiedemann, for his part, is a self-described “victim of the recent economic downturn,” who lost his job as a project manager for a big architectural and design firm in New York City before deciding to settle in Staunton. Wiedemann and his fiancée, Katie McCaskey, became fast friends with Will and Christie Wright, the owners of the coffee shop and laundry located next door to the Bowers Grocery space, The Dirty Bean, upon landing in the Queen City in April, and together the quartet laid out the basic blueprint for the grocery, which will rent shelf space to local food producers and vendors and also feature a line of George Bowers Grocery privately-labeled products such as pastas, rice, flour and sugar.

The project got a big boost from the Staunton Creative Community Fund, which along with Community Bank in Staunton provided initial financing of $5,000 in working capital and an additional $50,000 in monies for equipment and construction costs. “Our board is very excited about this project, since it turns an empty storefront into a much-needed community grocery that supports local farmers,” Staunton Creative Community Fund executive director Dr. Tony Smith said.

Linking with local shoppers will be a key focal point in the final countdown leading up to the big Nov. 1 grand opening – or shall we call it the grand reopening, in a nod to George Bowers?

“We’re throwing a wide net, basically letting everybody here in the neighborhood know, if you’re check to check, if you’re on Social Security, or if you spend five days a week in D.C. and come down here on the weekends, we’re going to have something for your needs. And save you a trip to Kroger or Martin’s. I hate to drive any more than I have to, and if you need one little grocery item, you can get it here,” Wiedemann said.

Ol’ George couldn’t have said it any better himself …