dan Swanson

news | press

For the first time since Norman Stehlik opened his first grocery store in Nebraska City nearly six decades ago, his family is not planning on restocking the shelves.

The iconic, family-owned grocery store is holding a close-out sale this week and plans to close its doors whenever the shelves are bare.

Jim Stehlik, who owns the store along with brothers Pip and Bill, said he will miss the store’s employees and its core of customers, but it is not feasible to continue.

“We want to first and foremost acknowledge and thank all of the tremendous support we’ve had over the years.

“There’s a core of people that have been completely supportive of us, but it’s just not enough to continue. They say you’re either growing or you’re dying and we’ve had great growth over the years, but now we don’t,” he said. “It’s just like if you don’t have enough gas in your car or food in your belly, you eventually go the other way.”

Despite adding a nationally-known food service with Dairy Queen, promoting specials and sales and pursuing the traditional objectives of cleanest store, best customer service and highest quality food, Stehlik said he was not able to solve the puzzle of customer loss.

“It gets you thinking that maybe a higher power is telling you it’s time to do something different,” he said.

Although the decision to close was not a happy one, Stehlik said he is ready to move on to the next chapter in his life.

The store will begin its new hours on Monday of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will offer discounts off of grocery bills for the closeout.

When the Stehliks returned to the IGA family in 2004, over 10,000 customers per week were going through the check-out aisles. Stehlik said the store was designed to handle twice that many and was built with growth in mind.

“It was designed for high usage. That was our intention when it was built �“ to be here a long time and serve the community,” he said.

At this point, there is not a new owner or tenant for the 37,000-square-foot building, but Stehlik said it is unlikely that it will re-open as a grocery store.

Velva Steiner said she started shopping with the Stehliks shortly after she and her husband, Joe, moved to Nebraska City in 1961.

“I’m going to miss it terribly. I’ve always shopped at Norman’s and I will continue shopping here until there’s no groceries left,” she said.

Steiner became a customer when the store was located on Central Avenue and followed it to north 11th Street and finally to the Country Mart location on south 11th Street.

The family’s first experience with IGA began in the 1920s, however, when Fred Stehlik opened his first supermarket. When the family returned to IGA, the store had peaked at 130 staff members.