Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The renovation permits are in hand. Now the physical work at 1481 Anderson Highway is underway, transforming what used to be the old Marion’s Bi-Rite and the old Cumberland Hardware store into a Cumberland grocery store. Cumberland County Administrator Derek Stamey gave an update on the process to the economic development authority (EDA) during their Tuesday, May 20 meeting. 

“They pulled out all the ceiling grid, they’ve cleaned the walls, the floors and they took down some siding so there’s all windows along the front,” Stamey said. 

Also, the group found more space that can be used for parking. There’s an old asphalt pad that had grown over at the rear of the building. Grass and weeds had long since grown over the pavement, but after cleaning that off, it allows for more parking spaces. Meanwhile, the ownership group is also putting in all new ceiling tiles, lighting and coolers. They also received plans for the inside, so construction can start on the three restrooms that will be going in the back of the building. 

For anyone not familiar with the property, the building is roughly the size of a Dollar General store and is across Route 60 from the County Administration building. Now grocery stores are zoned by right in the Cumberland Courthouse district, which is where this falls in. That means they don’t have to go through the process to get a conditional use permit. The group can just start working on renovations. And they’re in the development phase right now. 

“It’s a lot, a lot of work is going into making this a grocery store,” Stamey told the EDA. 

Members of the EDA asked how the county was helping to make this happen. Stamey said he and his staff were helping the group apply for grant opportunities, hoping they could get some funding to ease some of the cost. 

More about the Cumberland grocery store

The new Cumberland grocery store will have several things requested by residents, including fresh fruits and vegetables, canned goods. The group will offer freshly cut meat and have a deli counter. The store will also have a system set up for online ordering. The store will have people who can deliver orders to local homes. They’re also putting in a system, both online and at the store, to require IDs for alcohol and tobacco sales. It’s not a case of possibly forgetting to ask for the ID. The system won’t move forward on either type of sale without an ID. 

So far, the group has had conversations with Coke and Pepsi about selling their products. They’ve also talked with Budweiser and are working on getting their ABC and tobacco license. 

During their May 20 meeting, EDA members asked about the timeline, if the Cumberland grocery store was still on track to open this fall. Stamey said yes, the group is still aiming for a Sept. 1 opening. They also asked how far it was from the other grocery project being considered in the county, to make sure the two operations don’t take each others’ customers. 

They’re referring to plans to bring in a Dollar General Market, a proposal that will go to supervisors next month. Rhetson Companies is in the process of buying a piece of land from Valco Investments, one located at the intersection of Blenheim Road and Anderson Highway

The applicant’s plans call for a 10,640 square foot Dollar General retail store, which would also have a DG Market section, so residents could shop for some groceries inside. Specifically, they need a permit in order to bypass a typical county requirement. Cumberland zoning requires one parking space for every 250 square feet of retail floor space in the building. The building is 10,640 sq. ft. with 8,572 sq. ft. of retail space. This will require 35 parking spaces, according to zoning.

The EDA was informed the two projects would be roughly six to seven miles apart from each other and wouldn’t create any problems, in terms of competing for customers. It’s also hoped that as more projects like this take shape, it’ll make Cumberland more attractive for both potential residents and other business owners, groups that just didn’t want to be the first one to take a step forward. 

What does it take? 

Those other businesses, especially big brands, can be cautious when it comes to entering a new area. 

In order to get those things, it’s not as simple as just picking up the phone and making a call. To move into an area, companies need to have some questions answered. As we covered last year, when Farmville went through similar arguments, companies look at income levels and they look at housing, as well as housing growth, before agreeing to move to a location. It’s not as simple as announcing that you want a Food Lion or a Publix. In order to make that happen, an area has to meet their requirements. 

Many national grocers, like Aldi or Whole Foods, are very transparent about their requirements and even post them online. Each has their own individual number in mind, in terms of what kind of community fits what they’re looking for. For example, Aldi requires a daily traffic count of more than 20,000 vehicles per day, as well as a “dense trade area population”. What’s that mean? It refers to the total number of people living within the area the business would draw from. Typically, they go for 1,000 people per square mile in urban areas and half that in rural towns and communities. The store itself needs to be at least 22,000 square feet, built on 2.5 acres of land.

Multiple studies back that up. In their paper “How Underserved Areas Attract Grocery Stores”, media research firm Buxton spells out that a company examines the population, visibility, the amount of traffic that goes by specific sites and local competition when considering a move into a new area. Does the company believe there’s enough people who will routinely visit the store to make expansion worth it?

A 2016 study by the University of Minnesota and a 2019 study by New York University echo that. And beyond population numbers, “two of the most frequently reported challenges are the lack of suitable sites and the higher development and operation costs in unproven locations,” the Buxton study says. 

BRIAN CARLTON is the regional editor for the Farmville Herald and its sister papers. He can be reached at brian.carlton@farmvilleherald.com.