Business Spotlight: Meet Your Locally-Owned Hometown Local Grocer: Cost Kutter Grocery

I love writing the Business Spotlight because I get to sit down and talk to local owners about their business and how they are doing what they are doing. Hometown local business is the backbone for any community. Let me introduce you to Jay Mitchell, Owner Operator of Cost Kutter Grocery located on Hamilton Rd, just off Manchester in Columbus. Here is the interview. Hope you like as much as I enjoy doing these.

Bill: Jay you and your partners bought the Cost Kutter Grocery Store here in Columbus about a year ago. You have a long history with this location and the store that it was before you made it a Cost Kutter Grocery store. I think our readers would love to know the connection.

Jay Mitchell: My partners and I bought the Cost Kutter location at 4217 Hamilton Road a year ago from Save a lot. Prior to Save a lot, that location was a Lewis Jones Food Market. Lewis Jones was a Columbus based family-owned chain of seven supermarkets that date back to 1933. They were well known for having the best quality meat and produce in town and for outstanding hometown customer service. I had the privilege of working in the Lewis Jones stores in 1997 and 1998 for the second-generation owners Cary, Ned, and Jerry Jones. It was a great opportunity for me to learn and gave me a view into what the potential of the Columbus market really is. While we are operating Cost Kutter as a value format, we hope to bring some of that legacy of friendly neighborhood service, great meat and produce, and hometown pride back to our store.

Bill: You’re one of three owners of Cost Kutter Grocery. The ownership seems to cover all the bases for how to run a good grocery store. Your family background is in grocery stores. You grew up in the business. What about your partners?

Jay: I am a third-generation family grocer. My grandfather started the grocery business in 1945, my father Jack spent 60 years working in the grocery business full time. My family owns Mitchell Grocery Corp, a wholesale grocery warehouse that provides the primary products and services to 185 family-owned supermarkets across 5 states. I started working in stores at 13 years of age and have worked in all departments of the store from sack boy to meat cutter, from produce man to district manager.

My partners in the Cost Kutter stores are Clay Kennamer and Jimmy Wright.

Jimmy is the owner of Wrights Market in Opelika, AL, he grew up in the grocery business starting in his father’s store at 12 years old. He has expanded his facility and his sales greatly in the time he has served the Opelika community. He is very involved in civic affairs in his community and is an advocate for bringing together independent grocers with underserved communities through the work he does in conjunction with the National Grocers Association. Jimmy was instrumental in the vision of developing a meat-driven value format to serve both rural and urban markets across south Georgia. He is dedicated to serving both his customers and his team.

Clay comes to us from a farming and Beef Production background. He grew up on his family farm in North Alabama before attending Auburn University. He operates a sizable cow/calf operation and backgrounding yard. He has been very active in farm organizations including a stint as President of Alabama Cattlemen’s association. He has been passionate in ensuring our stores are clean, organized, friendly, and inviting and has lent a discerning eye in making sure our meat offering is up to “Cattleman” standards.

One of my favorite things about being in the Cost Kutter ownership group is the passion of our owners and our team. I have known both of my partners for over 25 years. We have very similar ideas and values on how to approach business and how to serve. We can be quick and nimble in making decisions about a business opportunity whether that is a store location, a great buy on a truckload of product, or adjusting programs to better help our customers deal with a changing environment.

Bill: What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a local grocery store owner?

Jay: Our entrance into the Columbus market has been somewhat “under the radar”. We had been studying potential opportunities to acquire stores in Georgia for a couple of years and doing homework on possible markets. We got an opportunity to purchase 8 Save a lot stores, but in order to get them we had to take them over immediately and “build the plane as we were flying it” while converting over to Cost Kutter. We encountered many challenges in getting our arms around a far-flung group of stores while integrating computer systems, changing out signage, and standing up distribution in some new markets. We have tried to make sure things were operating as we wanted before making a big push on advertising. So we have depended on Facebook and word of mouth for most of our exposure, with an occasional mailout to homes.

Bill: How many stores do you own outside of Columbus? (Let’s plug all of them)----you never know who might get a copy of this.

Jay: Now that we are a year in, we feel like we have a motivated and experienced store team, we are fully stocked and supplied, we have our meat and produce programs working correctly, we have our systems communicating correctly, we have 10 Cost Kutter stores serving markets across Georgia including LaFayette, Columbus, Americus, Cordele, Dawson, Tifton, Cairo, Douglas, Valdosta, and Brunswick, and we are ready to grow. And I love sharing our story.

Bill: What opportunities do you see for growth ----any future expansion plans in the future?

Jay: We feel that the Cost Kutter offering is ideal for today’s economic climate. Our goal is to provide the customer with exceptional value. We do that in a number of ways, one is simplicity. We won’t rotate your tires, fill your prescription, do your dry cleaning, or pump your gas while you shop with us. We are a simple neighborhood grocery store. What we will offer you is full stores, fresh meat and produce. Quick and friendly service. We sell a curated assortment of the most popular national brands, a broad assortment of affordable private label items featuring our Food Club. Simply done, and That’s Smart Labels, and a changing assortment of opportunity buy or closeout items.

We stock around 2,500 items in the store compared to 30,000 items or more. That means fewer dollars tied up in inventory, less space needed to store, process, and display our product. Which means we spend less on rent, utilities, transportation, and extra staff than our superstore competitors and can pass the savings on to you. We price our products at our cost to buy, warehouse, transport and stock on the shelf, then we add a consistent 10% fee at the register to cover our operating expenses.

We work with a wide network of national manufacturers and local vendors and are constantly shopping the market to find the best deals for family shoppers. If changing the size we carry of a product or changing the brand we promote gives our shopper a better deal we can make that change quickly.

We cut our meats fresh in store daily with dedicated trained butchers. We endeavor to have the freshest meat and produce possible and our ad prices on fresh meat are garnering much attention for our stores.

In addition, our smaller store footprint means you can get in and out of our store quickly, without having to park a mile away and navigate a store the size of 3 football fields. We still staff our registers with real people, who live in your neighborhood, and will thank you for shopping with us.

Bill: Jay, I love your story and your connection to the community.

Jay: We also believe that giving back to the community is crucial. My dad always said “If you want to have good neighbors, be a good neighbor.” We are thankful to have been welcomed into your neighborhood. One way that we are giving back is participating in Dining for Charities. You can purchase a $20 value deal for only $10 and have a portion of your purchase go to local nonprofits.

Bill: We truly appreciate your participation in Dining for Charities and on behalf of all our nonprofits thank you for that. Any last thoughts?

Jay: We are working hard every day to cut your total grocery bill. All we ask is that you give us the chance to prove that we can.

Bill: Thank you for sharing your Cost Kutter Grocery story with our readers. I would add that everyone should stop by and shop local. As Jay told me at one point, “Before you go to the big box stores, shop Cost Kutter Grocery first.”