THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Ridge Farm resident Alan Johnson stops recently at Save-A-Lot in Georgetown. He shops at the grocery store about once a week. He appreciates its location, saying it’s more convenient than traveling to Danville or Paris. / Jennifer Bailey The News-Gazette
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GEORGETOWN — It’s the little grocery store that could.
That’s the impetus behind the effort to get the community to step up to save its Save A Lot grocery store at 204 Huffman St., about a block off Illinois 1.
Darren Alexander, known in the area for his concession business, food trucks and catering business, and his wife put in an offer to buy the grocery store that was going bankrupt.
One of the owners passed away and the other couldn’t keep it going.
“It was four hours from closing, and odds are it was probably going to close for good,” Alexander said.
When a store is shut down for a period of time and equipment isn’t running properly, it can be expensive to replace items and get it reopened, he said.
So Alexander and his fellow investors, Sean Lagacy and his daughter, Makaelyn, decided to step up.
