Date posted: 2-23-01

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Cub closes after only a year

By Veronica Thomas

DeKalb News Service

GENEVA -- Just a year after opening, Cub Foods in Geneva has announced it will close at the end of March.

Rita Simmer, media relations director for Supervalu Inc, the parent company of Cub, said the closing of the Geneva store is purely a business decision.

"The Geneva store performed below expectations," she said. "I don't blame any particular factor for the closing. It was simply a case of a store not performing."

She said the closing is an isolated decision and that other Cub stores will remain open.

Employees as well as managers have been offered jobs at other Cub Foods locations, Simmer said. For many, this means a longer commute to work. The closest store is in Aurora, a 15-minute drive from the Geneva store. The Geneva store employs more than 150 people. Simmers said she wasn't aware of a severance package being offered to anyone.

Eagle Country Market previously occupied the Randall Road location. Eagle closed in February 2000, after being open only three years. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last June.

Some of Cub's customers wondered if there was too much competition in the area for the store.

"Maybe having Dominick's next door and Jewel and Aldi down the street were too much," said Alex Mokrycki, who shops at Cub weekly. "It's sad to see it go, but whenever I'm in here they're never very busy."

Alderman Renee Brenner, whose ward includes the store, said while the obvious reason for the store closing is lack of sales, the larger cause is another matter.

"Dominick's is right next door to Cub, and perhaps there wasn't enough demand for two stores co close together," Brenner said. "This is the second failed attempt to put a grocery store in that location, and I'm not sure what the management at Cub thought they were going to do differently."

A June 2000 article in the Washington Business Journal said food stores experience intense competition with a low-margin profit line.

"A healthy economy causes industry competition to intensify causing more closures," according to the magazine.

Like many Cub stores, the Geneva location is open 24 hours and has a pharmacy and in-store bank.

Cub was established in 1968 and stands for Consumers United for Buying. Supervalu Inc purchased the five original Cub stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in 1980. Supervalu is the nation's 10th-largest food retailer and distributor.

There are more than 125 company-owned and franchised stores in states such as Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. Illinois locations include Bartlett, Lombard, Wheaton, Crystal Lake, Downers Grove and Lisle.

Source list:
· (Rita Simmer, Media Relations Coordinator,(952) 828-4429. r.simmer@supervalu.com
· (Alex Mokrycki, Elgin Community College student, St. Charles (630) 513 7156
· Washington Business Journal 6/19/2000 Bankruptcies Don't Stop During Boom
· Renee Brenner, second ward alderman, Geneva, Ill. (630) 208-1571, aldbrenner@geneva.il.us.