Reserve local market strives for service to compete with mega-store competition

0RESERVE – Gregg Simon is proving to the world of the mega-stores that it can still be done.

Providing all the little things that make customers happy, the one-year owner of Gregg’s Neighborhood Grocery in Reserve said his first year in business has been a good one, with bigger and better things to come.

Simon has proven that the local, community business can not only survive, but thrive, even as the major chain stores have come into smaller communities and made it tough to compete.

But he has done so with a vast array of improvements, led by customer service, since he bought out longtime owner Harvey Weber a year ago.

“People are still interested in customer service, and having a convenient place to shop, as opposed to the bigger stores where you don’t get that kind of service,” he said.

He celebrated his one-year anniversary of Gregg’s Neighborhood Grocery this past week at his Central Avenue location, and said his first year as the owner has been a good one, after he bought the business from Weber where he managed the store for 15 years.

“I enjoy running this store, and we’ve made a lot of changes to make it better,” he said. “We improved the meat department, and of course, a local store with a real meat department can offer so much more than the bigger places.”

He has a state-of-the-art security system that offers protection for customers, as well as his own business, and he has sunk thousands of dollars into store improvements.

He seems unfazed by continuing competition, not only from the large mega-stores.

“I even have some other, new, smaller stores on Airline that cut into my market, but I think the improvements to the store here has brought back a lot of customers. People knew me here for 15 years, so even the name change to Gregg’s was important so people knew I was going to still be running things here,” he added.

His future plans are to expand the meat department even further, put in new flooring and add better lighting.

“My name is on the front of this store, so I want it to be something I’m proud of. So far I think we’ve done that, and given people the best service we can. And that is something we will always try to improve on,” he added.