That depends on what you mean by "the town". In many cases the town may not be a legal entity, or it may be part of a larger county, that have zero interest in a rural grocery store. If you're thinking the inhabitants of the town then that might be somewhat unstable, as in people might be able to afford it one year, but not the next, people leaving, new people who are not interested.
We did something similar where I live. A new owner wanted to reopen the grocery store, and the town collected around $100.000 to get her started. A few people work for free a few hours a week, stocking shelfs and stuff like that. In the end though, it's a business and she needs to turn a profit. The people in the town are motivated to shop there, because if the store closes, the value of their homes will fall dramatically.
>We did something similar where I live. A new owner wanted to reopen the grocery store, and the town collected around $100.000 to get her started. A few people work for free a few hours a week, stocking shelfs and stuff like that. In the end though, it's a business and she needs to turn a profit. The people in the town are motivated to shop there, because if the store closes, the value of their homes will fall dramatically.
Sounds like you guys did the opposite: give a private owner a cheap loan and free volunteer labor. Hope she's at least opening up the books to you guys.
We did something similar where I live. A new owner wanted to reopen the grocery store, and the town collected around $100.000 to get her started. A few people work for free a few hours a week, stocking shelfs and stuff like that. In the end though, it's a business and she needs to turn a profit. The people in the town are motivated to shop there, because if the store closes, the value of their homes will fall dramatically.