Local Independent Grocer Discusses Challenges Amid COVID-19

I worked at the Rivertown IGA in New Richmond for a total of three hours last week.

Corey, one of the store’s managers, handed me a razor blade. “This should help,” he said as I stood there wearing my black apron and holding a box of frozen corn. I used the blade to cut the tape on the box just like I did back in the 1990’s when I worked at Reider’s Stop-N-Shop in Willowick, Ohio.

Eric, another manager, barged through the backroom doors to the sales floor with an industrial cart filled with mounds of frozen food stock.

A lot of the freezer shelves were low on stock so there was plenty of work to do. Corey and Eric have been working tons of overtime to keep up with the sharp increase in grocery shopping. In fact, each manager went a few weeks without a single day off to keep up with the store’s high demands.

It was funny how the memories of grocery work came back to me as I helped Corey and Eric stock the Rivertown IGA frozen food section. Like how you have to pull up on the stiff cardboard flaps of a frozen corn case and carefully cut the tape with short slices so you don’t accidentally damage the bags of corn.

Familiar frustrations reemerged as well. I never forgot that bracket way in the back of every freezer shelf that prevents that frozen lasagna or pot pie from fitting properly, so you have to decide whether to make the entire row crooked or just lose that space in the back.

How could I forget about the cold hands and stiff knees from squatting down to reach the lowest shelf? I was, however, also reminded of the therapeutic monotony of stocking shelves. The low level busy work for your brain that gives you room to think and defragment your thoughts with very few distractions – kind of like shower thoughts only stocking thoughts I guess.

Talking to Eric and Corey as we worked gave me an idea what it was like on the front lines when this whole thing started.

“The first two weeks were crazy,” Corey said.

I’m told the lines backed up to the deli and they had to open all their registers; something they’ve never had to do before.

Overall, it went pretty smooth, except for a few customers upset about the depleted stock and a few hoarders with $700+ orders during the first couple days before anyone was limiting purchases.

How I ended up there

I only worked for three hours and haven’t been back, but I wasn’t fired and I didn’t quit. The truth is that I wasn’t really on the books there. I was actually scheduled to meet with Ray Dietrich, the owner of the store, for a Beechmont Stories interview the same day, but after Ray had three employees not show up to work that day, he had to cancel the interview.

Knowing that Ray was short staffed, I offered to help out. “I can come in for a few hours and help out if you need me to,” I told Ray.

“See you at 11:30,” Ray said.

Sensing that this was probably more of a test of my sincerity than an actual call for help, I made sure to show up 10 minutes early.

And so that’s how I ended up working with Corey and Eric. It took us three hours to get the pallets put out onto the sales floor. When I was done I went home and came back a few days later to interview Ray on a more manageable day for him.

Meet the owner

You may know Ray Dietrich from his popular Rivertown IGA Facebook page. If you haven’t seen his store’s page, you have to go check it out. Think of Kroger ads, but with a sense of humor and a sense of community. Oh and real people too, rather than sterile digital sprites.

Ray’s Rivertown IGA Facebook page informs while it entertains by utilizing skit comedy and parody to reach his customers. His messages may include sales prices, new products, or simply an appreciation for his customers AND employees. Ray’s popular weekly state of the store videos give viewers a transparent, behind the scene view of the retail industry during COVID-19.

His playfully cheesy comedy skits remind me of Big Chuck and Little John from Cleveland or Svengoolie from Chicago, but instead of throwing rubber chickens Ray throws real ones – right into the fryer. And I hear it’s some of the best fried chicken around.

In between all the laughs, one can certainly read between the lines and pick up on Ray’s appeal for local residents to shop locally when they can. Even if he doesn’t always say it directly, the implication is there, especially when he showcases his employees like family rather than assets. In the end, Ray leads you to the conclusion that support for local business is support for his store family.

Ray’s larger than life personality is just as vibrant in person as it is online. His sense of humor and opinionated quick wit had me chuckling from the very start.

“I keep hearing about how we need to check on our elderly during the pandemic,” Ray said. “But I think it’s the opposite. I had a young lady come in the store and ask me what she should cook since the restaurants are closed. I said why don’t you get some burgers. She said I don’t know, are burgers messy to cook? See, it’s the young we need to worry about. The old people know what to do,” Ray chuckled. “So check on your young people.”

First it was the flood

COVID-19 isn’t the first challenge Ray faced at Rivertown. In 1997, Ray and his store braved the Ohio River flood that decimated Cincinnati’s southern border. Ray recalled the 8 inch high water around the floodgates to his store and how the National Guard carried away the grocery perishables that he donated to the community.

Ray built the Rivertown IGA from the ground up, but initially, Ray couldn’t get a building permit to build his store because of how close it was to the river. The United States Army Corps of Engineers told Ray that if he could get an architect to certify a flood proof design, they’d give him a permit. So Ray had to go all the way out to Minneapolis to find an architect willing to take on that challenge.

In the end Ray got his permit and finished construction of the Rivertown IGA in 1990. “I thought I was pretty smart and everything was peachy, but there was one thing I forgot because when the river came up and went back down, the town was gone.” Ray chuckled, “There was no one to sell anything to.”

He remembered the caravans of outsiders who would drive through to gawk at the destruction and take pictures. “The whole town would get so pissed, they’d be throwing rocks at their cars to chase them out, it was crazy.”

Crazy times indeed. COVID-19 has certainly brought about its own crazy times as well. But COVID-19 is different. Ray says these are more challenging times for his store.

Supply chains during COVID-19

“Turnover is way up because employees are scared, they’re stressed, they’re wore out,” Ray told me. Though not as destructive on the surface as the flood of 1997, COVID-19’s widespread disruptions to the supply chain offer a new and certainly more lingering host of problems. This led me to my first question:

“Why is the grocery stock so low everywhere?”

Ray explained: “You know how when there is a hurricane in Florida and everyone goes to the stores and just wipes the stock out? Well the warehouses down there will get wiped out also, but the warehouses up north will send stock and equipment down south to help out and pick up some of the slack. Well this time the whole country got wiped out. Every warehouse is in the same boat.”

Ray said this depleted excess inventories. “Most stores may have a seven day supply. Warehouses and manufacturers may have 20. Eventually, it all just evaporated across the country.”

Then when restaurants started to close, people needed even more groceries because they had to cook at home and that just put extra strain on already stressed supply chain.

Ray fears the lasting effects may be felt the hardest by local restaurants. A supplier contact told Ray they estimate 35-40% of restaurants will go under because of COVID-19. The big chains will be okay because they have the cash, but a lot of mom and pop restaurants will be gone. The lost revenue from the shutdown will make it hard for them to pay their bills to their suppliers when they try to reopen. I guess a lot will depend on how much support will be provided by the government to assist these smaller restaurants.

And since the restaurants are closed and their futures are questionable, restaurant and hotel suppliers are inching their way into retail, selling a lot of their stock to Ray and other grocery stores. Chances are that if you see individual rolls of toilet paper for sale, they most likely came from a hotel supplier.

Silver lining?

We keep hearing that a lot is going to change post-COVID-19 and that certainly seems to be true for retail. Ray considers whether or not COVID-19 will end up helping smaller stores like his when all is said and done. “I wonder after all this, if people won’t want to go to Walmart with a thousand other people shopping with them. Maybe they will want to go some place smaller, safer.”

So if you’re a “shop local” kind of person, and feel kind of trapped into patronizing overcrowded big chain grocery stores during the pandemic, maybe take the trip down 52 once in a while and see old Ray and his crew. The riverside drive is nice and when you arrive the parking is bearable. Say hello to Corey and Eric, and of course Ray. You never know, you may end up in one of his viral videos.

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Did you miss the last Beechmont Story, Who is the Piper of Chestnut Ridge?, check it out here.