Everett Whitcher, owner of Kewanee Save-A-Lot chats with a customer by the store's meat case. Meat is the store's number one seller. Whitcher has resisted prepackaged products and Save-A-Lot still trims, cuts and packages a majority of the meat they sell. [Photo by Susan DeVilder]
Everett Whitcher’s corner office in his grocery store on Main Street provides him with a bird’s-eye view of all he’s been able to build. Hanging on the walls of that office are multiple community awards, recognitions, photographs and clipped news articles that depict the Kewanee native’s rich history with his community.
To anyone who knows Whitcher, it comes as little surprise that he’s been chosen as the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce’s “Outstanding Citizen,” the Kewanee Hog Days parade marshall one year or recognized for his community service by the Kewanee Chapter of the DAR.
For over five decades, Whitcher’s name in Kewanee has been intertwined with not only the grocery industry but with community involvement, but his early years started with humble beginnings.
The son of a factory worker and farm laborer, Whitcher grew up in a middle class family with parents that modeled a strong work ethic. His mother, he said, was always working one job or another. His own first entry into the workforce was into an industry he has never been able to leave behind.
“My first job was at a grocery store,” he said. “I started 53 years ago.”
A family friend worked at Del Farm on Burr Boulevard and convinced Whitcher to put in his application. He was hired as a bag and carry- out boy for Del Farm in 1970 at just 16-years of age.
In 1976, the owner of Del Farm sold to an independent SuperValu operator, and Whitcher continued his employment for that chain, working second and third shifts before finally working his way up to produce manager.
He moved up quickly within the Super Valu ranks, transferring to the Galva store to act as the assistant manager around 1977.
“It was my first job,” said Whitcher. “When I started, I liked dealing with the public. Not everyone could do that, but I just liked what I was doing and I wanted to learn.”
Just a few short months later, Whitcher was transferred to Rock Falls in 1978-79, a move he clearly remembers because of the terrible winter that year and the sometimes perilous drive back and forth.
Whitcher, not yet 30-years-old, was soon made manager of the Sterling SuperValu, but it wasn’t long before an opening at the Kewanee store and the possibility of not having to make the drive everyday pulled him back to his hometown.
“I told them if there was ever an opening at the Kewanee store, I wanted to come back,” he said.
He returned to Kewanee in 1981, the same year his son, Brad, was born. He worked at the Kewanee store for several years until the owner of SuperValu decided to sell his stores and leave the area.
“That left me looking for a job,” he said. “I knew I wanted to buy a store and I set my goal that by the time I was 30, I would own one.”
Six SuperValu stores were up for sale at that time, and Whitcher made the decision to buy the smallest of the stores in Galva.
“We ran the store, but I wanted to buy another store,” he said. “That was always the goal.”
After some back and forth negotiations with the owner of the Kewanee store, Whitcher purchased his second store in 1989. That store remained a SuperValu store until the arrival of a big box store in town forced Whitcher to rethink his business model.
In 1997, Whitcher bought into the discount chain Save-A-Lot. Walmart changing to a Super Walmart in 1995 forced his hand, he said.
“We had to do something,” said Whitcher, recalling the steep drop off in his sales at the time.
Other grocers, such as Kroger and Eagles, unable to compete with the deep discounts offered by their competitors, closed up shop and left Kewanee, but for a couple of rough years, Whitcher pushed hard to make the store profitable.
“It took two years before things began to look up,” he said.
With things looking up in his Kewanee store, Whitcher said he made the fateful decision to try his hand in the Chillicothe market.
“That’s the sad part of the story,” he said. “We opened that store and three years later, closed it. We just couldn’t get that one off the ground.”
In 2009, he partnered with Darren DeJaynes and opened another Save-A-Lot in Monmouth. He and DeJaynes talk about four times a week on the phone, but Whitcher said he’s able to leave much of the day-to-day operations to DeJaynes and focus on the Kewanee store.
In 2022, the building on Main Street, which Whitcher purchased and completely renovated in 2014, went through a major remodeling, with new flooring and interior paint. Outside, Whitcher added some paint, a new sign and resurfaced the parking lot.
With Save-A-Lot now a preferred grocery store for many in the community, Whitcher has been able to step away from the business. He currently works about three and a half days a week and stops in frequently, but the day-to-day operations, he has turned over to his son, Brad, who stepped in as manager about five years ago.
“It’s hard to give up. I’m ready to retire but I enjoy it,” he said.
Whitcher will eventually retire, he said, and he does have some thoughts on how he would spend his time.
“I would like to do some traveling. Whether I get to do so or not, who knows?” He said.
His hobby is working on houses and he owns several properties that he enjoys renovating, but as he’s gotten older, it’s become more difficult, he said.
He spends a great deal of time volunteering for Kiwanis. He’s well-known for his generous donations and can be found in the church kitchen flipping flapjacks for the organization’s annual pancake breakfast; selling peanuts for “Peanut Day” or providing tours of his business to students for the Kiwanis signature service project- Career Day.
A community philanthropist, Whitcher has assisted dozens of organizations over the years such as the Kewanee Food Pantry, the Henry County Humane Society/Kewanee Animal Shelter, the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce fireworks display, Patchy’s Toy Drive, and Abilities Plus. In 2022, Whitcher received a special recognition award from Abilities Plus for his help in raising funds with a Save-A-Lot “round-up.”
His generosity and desire to help his community, he said, stems from the debt he feels he owes to a community that has supported his business over the years.
“I think it’s because I’ve been doing this so long,” he said. “The community and the people- I wouldn’t be here without the people. And now, I am able to do it. But I wouldn’t be here without my customers and my community. I think every business should give back what they can.”
For the time being, Whitcher isn’t going anywhere and for several days a week, customers can find him at the store doing what he loves to do.
“I thoroughly enjoy doing what I do. If I didn’t, I would do something else,” he said.
