Business Today

Poplar Bluff -- Jim Ferguson, manager of the Country Mart supermarket on North Westwood, is probably one of the few people in the area not complaining about the winter weather.

When snow is forecast, people rush out to stock up on milk and bread and other items.

"People tend to stay home and eat," Ferguson said. "It hurt our restaurant business, but it helped the store business." Ferguson said he sold a steady supply of salt for clearing sidewalks, and had to order more and hope it arrived. A year ago, he said, he had salt in the back of the store until summer, "and then I sold it for ice cream salt" (to be used in ice cream makers), he said.

Country Mart has enjoyed steady business since it opened in May 2001. On the average, Ferguson said, about 8,000 people a week come in to shop.

Country Mart and its affiliated stores don't sell alcoholic beverages, a store policy since the early 1960s. One byproduct of not selling liquor is that the store has fewer incidences of shoplifting.

Nearly 60 people work at Country Mart, not only in the grocery store, but the cafeteria, floral shop with delivery, delicatessen, and the office staff.

The store is one of 40 owned by a chain based in Fredericktown and one of two stores in Poplar Bluff, the other being the County Mart on Highway 53. Ferguson has been the manager of the Westwood Avenue store since it opened. He's been in the grocery business since 1968. He graduated in 1966 from Poplar Bluff High School.