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Cumberland County isn’t ready yet to pursue a grocery store, county officials say. First, they have to develop a strong sales pitch. That was part of the discussion in the county economic development authority’s (EDA) meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21. 

“We need to define our infrastructure, where it is and where a grocery store can go,” said Cumberland supervisor John Newman. He also serves as one of the board’s liaisons to the EDA. “You need water, sewer and power. There’s really only two places in the county and that would be the courthouse area and the other area, I call it south on 45. There is sewer all the way down (on 45) and you can bring water up from Farmville.” 

The county needs to have all this data ready before anyone starts a sales pitch, Newman said. These are the types of questions companies will ask about an area. They’ll want to know where a building could be built. Then they’ll want to know about the area, the people and current habits, such as where they get groceries from now. The county will have to show that it can support a store through population growth, through housing growth numbers. It can’t just be a case where officials rush out and say ‘pick me’ to a store chain. 

“One of the things that I’ve seen in the past that I think has not been in our favor is individual supervisors contacting potential providers with a ‘hey, come to Cumberland’ pitch,” Newman said. “It needs to be strategic. We’ve got to prove all that, we’ve got to do the work for them.” 

Cumberland needs a plan

Another thing county officials need to do is identify what types of grocery stores would be interested in building here, EDA member Glenn Mozingo said. Which chain wants to sell in Cumberland County? 

“It’s not gonna be a Wegmans, it’s not gonna be Kroger,” Mozingo said. He suggested an IGA or a Food City, a smaller chain that the county could give some exclusivity to. 

“We need to figure out who’s gonna want to sell groceries to us and then create a plan to attract them,” Mozingo said. 

And part of that is discovering what the companies are looking for, he added. 

“They’ve all got things that are non-negotiable and we need to figure out what those things are,” Mozingo said. 

Another point was raised in the meeting that Cumberland wouldn’t just be planning for a grocery store, as most chains don’t operate in standalone buildings. Instead, they act as anchors for larger developments like shopping centers or strip malls. The developer works with the grocery store, typically the anchor tenant, finds out how much space they need, and then plans the rest around them. 

Working around the challenges 

Another challenge involves dealing with current habits. How do people in Cumberland typically get groceries now? Would it be easy to get them to transition? 

Cumberland County is identified as a food desert, meaning that residents have limited access to healthy food options. That’s accurate, as a foodbanks.org map shows 13%-17 of residents labeled as “food insecure.” 

Now, to be clear, food insecurity doesn’t mean no options exist. It does however mean there are obstacles in the way. After all, it’s hard to plan on a weekly grocery run if you have no vehicle and no one to give you a ride. At that point, you just take what you can get. It’s also harder to eat healthy when there’s no grocery store in the county. 

Residents in the center of the county have the farthest to travel, in order to get food. Most travel to Powhatan, Buckingham, Goochland, or Farmville to get groceries or they pick them up on their way home from work. Over the last couple of years, the arrival of a Dollar General Market and Pine View Bulk Foods have helped some, but there are still challenges. If you live in the Cartersville or Columbia area, for example, you wouldn’t often make the trip to Pine View, as it’s close to Farmville. 

Companies have questions before they agree to move into an area. They look at the population size, population ages and available locations for a store. Then they determine if it makes financial sense to move in. So what would a grocery store need in order to move in and can the county help with that in any way? 

Maybe that involves offering a non-compete clause in the contract, Cumberland County Administrator Derek Stamey said. Let’s say a grocery store moves in and is successful. Then Cumberland could promise exclusive rights to an area, banning other stores from that part of the county for 5 to 10 years. 

A word of caution for Cumberland

Stamey also warned EDA members that they and other county officials will likely have to make some choices when it comes to grocery stores. He pointed out that some stores will do the exact same thing as some other businesses in the area and will want to eliminate the competition. 

“And we’re not in the business of putting people out of business,” Stamey said. “These may be certain things you all will have to balance from a recommendation standpoint.” 

Work on the ‘sales pitch’ will continue, as Cumberland starts building an economic development plan. A grant from the governor’s office and a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is being used to look at logistics, transportation, processing and identifying gaps of service, places where Cumberland could recruit new businesses to fill the void. Basically, what makes sense in Cumberland? Beyond farms, what about production? What about marketing? Is it being done correctly? 

What other areas of agriculture make sense to recruit to specific areas of the county? Or possibly there are some already here. What’s the best way to help them grow and develop? Cumberland County will contribute a $5,000 cash match toward the project.