Fresh Foods fills shopping needs in Mitchell community

Just months ago, the grocery store sat empty, virtually abandoned until local businessman Russ Reisig purchased the store. Reisig happened to be among the customer’s visiting the store as it marked its second day open.

Reisig, who had stopped by on Wednesday evening, noted that the deli had a line of customers so he’d returned the next day. He seemed pleased to see a lot of activity in the store.

Initially, Reisig had purchased the store for his own use.

“I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it when I first bought it,” he said. “I first thought we could use it for storage. I was going to bring all my light equipment to store … Then I walked in here and what I bought, I bought a complete grocery store.”

He said that the store had everything needed for a grocery store, from meat grinders to shelves. That visit changed his mind, he said, and he decided to make a couple of calls.

One of those calls was to Ben Dishman, who co-owns Fresh Foods grocery store in Gering with his wife, Kerri

“We had looked at this location a couple other times,” Dishman told the Star-Herald. “We’ve always had our eye on it. It’s close to Gering, the first store that we opened. And, Mitchell is such a neat community.”

For a community the size of Mitchell, he said, the lack of a grocery store leaves a great need. Being community-minded, he said, the Dishmans knew the impact of bringing a new grocery store into the community would be positive.

“We wanted to have something nice,” Dishman said of the thoughtfulness for which they approached the new venture. “We didn’t want to just open up another grocery store. We wanted to make sure that it was a beautiful place to come in and shop that had the variety that people needed to complete their grocery orders.”

The store also has a large deli, which fills a need for people to grab a nice deli sandwich, a salad, fried or rotisserie chicken when wanting a quick meal, he said. In stocking the store, he said, they focused on the needs of the people in the community so that they don’t have to drive 15-20 miles to Scottsbluff or Gering. They have similarly done so at the other stores they have opened, with the Dishmans owning three grocery stores in Colorado, including one in Fort Collins, a store in Torrington, Wyoming, and a store in York, in addition to the stores in Mitchell and Gering.

Giving people what they need is something he has learned through the years — such as ensuring that each of the stores have fresh produce, snack items like the 15 different flavors of popcorn offered at the Mitchell store, or value-added products like jalapeno poppers prepared by their staff.

“I grew up working in the grocery industry,” he said, noting that his grandparents, mother and uncles all worked in grocery-related businesses. His first job was a grocery bagger.

“I got into the grocery business and never got out of it.”

The store will be staffed by 12 to 14 people. Some positions remain available, though Dishman noted that the grocery industry is regularly hiring for its team.

The Dishmans and Reisig have put a lot of time and money into the store, readying it for occupancy after it had sat empty for eight years. Some of the more costly improvements included updates to the electrical. It’s been a lot of long hours since work started on the project in January, Dishman acknowledged.

For his part, Reisig encouraged people to stop by the store, enjoy it and support it. More and more, he said, small communities in the Panhandle are losing their grocery stores, rather than seeing new ones open.

“It’s hard not to have a local store, but if you don’t support it, you won’t have it. We have to be supportive.”

For the Dishmans, they want the community to see the store as belonging to the community.

“We’re ready to be a member of the community of Mitchell,” Dishman said. “We are here for them. We want this to be their grocery store.”