Groceries make return to Victor

When Victor's Market opens in the next couple of days, it will bring back more than a grocery store to a town that hasn't had one in nine years.

It will reinspire hope for a prosperous future in the community of 1,000 people, says Leonard Seda, president of Victor Community Development Association.

“This is truly a community risk that's very important to a small town and its jobs and its future,” he says.

Indeed, studies show a grocery store is the lifeblood of a community. Once residents have to leave town for the meat and potatoes of their daily lives, they leave town for the gravy and desert, too.

So, with that in mind, Susan Wilgenbusch decided last April to bring groceries back to Victor.

“Susan is on a mission to get fresh produce here,” says her husband, Duke. “And that's not easy.”

“I'm a health nut,” Susan says. “It's important. People want it.”

They've wanted it since Victor Country Foods shut its doors.

“When we knew it was closing, we went out to approach all the people who do groceries,” Leonard says. “They said ‘What's your population? We don't do anything in a town under 2,000 people.'”

But Leonard, 77, a retired veterinarian, says community spirit is a Victor hallmark. People want success, from 1978 when a $250 contribution from each business helped bring Victor Manufacturing to town (now the largest employer with about 300 people) to efforts in 2002 for the $320,000 Victor Health Center.

When Susan, who taught English and speech for two decades at the local school heard the Sinclair gas station/convenience store was for sale, she heeded Duke's suggestion to buy it.

“I didn't want to die in a town that didn't have a grocery store,” says Susan, 61, who grew up in Polk City.

And she's done it right, from installing a geothermal heating and cooling system in the brand new 3,600-square-foot building as part of a nearly half-million-dollar investment to naming the store for the community.

“That's why we put the apostrophe in Victor's Market,” she says. “They own it.”

Undoubtedly, challenges lie ahead. Victor's Market, also a convenience store, gas station and restaurant, will compete with a Casey's General Store a block away.

But Susan, a Victor resident since 1973, has confidence that homemade pizza, broasted chicken, sub sandwiches, the coldest walk-in cooler in town and fresh produce will prove her right. That Victor's Market will truly become Victor's market.