Within the next 10 days Myers Group, LLC may negotiate ownership of the lease currently held by Alaskan and Proud Grocery.
“We’re working hard to bring a first-class, full-service store to Juneau,” said Tyler Myers, president of Myers Group LLC (www.myersgroupllc.com).
However, Myers is cautious to declare success.
“We’ve got a few little things to get through,” hesaid.
Myers said his goal is to switch ownership of the Willoughby grocery before Alaskan and Proud is slated to close — the first week of September — before the current employees are forced to find work elsewhere, he said.
Myers said he has been in A&P two times now.
“I was impressed with the employees,” Myers said.
If Myers Group is successful in its bid for the Foodland Center lease, Myers said his next step would be to meet with current A&P employees.
“Let the employees know who we are, what we offer,” Myers said. He said he hopes they will decide to stay with the new grocer.
“They’ll do a marvelous job,” Myers said. “We have just under 400 employees and very little turnover. People tend to stay.”
The company promotes from within, Myers said.
“It’s a winning combination, a formula that works,” Myers said.
While the store’s employees impressed Myers, the store itself, he said, was a bit dated.
“We’ll do a full remodel, bring it up to our pretty high standards,” Myers said.
Myers Group, based in Seattle, Wash., owns several groceries, service stations, hardware stores and other retail operations. Many of its operations are located outside Seattle.
“I can fly to Juneau faster than I can drive to some of Myers’ other stores,” Myers said.
Myers said his company focuses on community grocers, some of which are IGAs.
“Whenever we go into a community we plan on 30, 40, 50 years,” Myers said. “We get involved in a community.”
The store would be a full-service grocery with meat, deli and bakery departments, Myers said. It would stock natural specialty items and organic and traditional goods, he said.
While the downtown grocery will use the same vendors as Myers Group’s other stores, Myers said Juneau customers have a say in the final store.
“If a customer wants a specific kind of hummus,” Myers said. “We’ve spent our careers finding that special kind of hummus,” Myers said.
Myers said his stores welcome locally-grown food.
On top of stocking local favorites, Myers said, “we’ll bring some new things that Juneau hasn’t seen before.”
Myers said he is confident his grocery can succeed where Alaskan and Proud did not.
“I’m confident in the staff we have and the staff in the store,” Myers said. “We’re going to be very successful in Juneau and give the community what it wants.”
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (35)
Add commentWhat!!!!
No Co-op?
Sounds great!
Let someone that knows what they're doing clean that place up and run a good business. A co-op would be great, but what would we do for the five years it would take them to finally open up? Start a co-op somewhere else, start small and build it up, learn some necessary lessons, prove that Juneau will support it, and then try to tackle a full-size grocery space...
Oh Yeah!
Sounds great - I hope this works out!
but wait
we're not through with our co-op market study!
Great news
Mr. Meyers, I hope to welcome your arrival very soon.
wink....
it's Myers, not Meyers.... All the building owners care about is cash on the barrel head, whoever ponys up first. I agree with Merryprankster, continue your "study" co-op people and learn by the ropes. Someone from that group was quoted the other day "we are not grociers". Well the Myers group is, and sounds like they have their ducks in a row. I love the idea they probably won't clean house with the employees. There is a great group of people over there and I would like to see them stay on. Remodel the store? Wow, great idea, give it a clean fresh look too. Got my fingers crossed with this new interest from the Myers Group. thank you for considering Juneau!
great!
This is great news, I hope it comes to fruition. I also commend the people that want to start a co-op. Perhaps they could still continue looking into starting one in Douglas. A smaller venue over there would be perfect for a co-op and they do tend to get alot of traffic in the summer months and with the skating rink, they get winter traffic as well.
Hey Roughcut, you seem to be posting alot about wanting a Chic Fil A. As far as I know there isnt anything preventing you from starting your own, Im sure you'd have plenty of customers and the owner of the chain would love you. Two peas in a pod.
Dang!
........and the co-op was so far," ahead of schedule."
Great News!
Sounds like a winner and they want to keep the current employees, even better new! I hope this works out for Juneau!
Love Chic Fil A
Eat more chicken...lol. See it's funny cause it's cows saying it.
Cows saying eat more chicken. LOL ohhhhh so funny.
Where do you think they got those cows?
Myers
It will be nice to see a new player come to town. I shop regularly at A&P, and enjoy doing so, but I agree it is time to freshen up the place.
According to their website, Myers' is involved in grocery as well as the TrueValue hardware chain, Shell and Texaco, even an apparent full service mailing center called "Copy This Mail That".
Welcome to Juneau!
Never
I would never set foot in a Chic-Fil-A.
Great News About Meyers
I have a hard time believing that there would be lines around the block at Burger King if its CEO gave an interview where he or she stated, "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage... black and white people should not be allowed to get married,'" and had also donated millions of dollars to white supremacist organizations.
Similarly, if the head of Taco Bell came out and said, "I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about -- women should be the property of their husbands and anything otherwise is against traditional marriage," I don't think we'd see food courts packed with folks rabidly demanding 10-packs of tacos.
Good Move! Good News for the current A&P employees!
This is good news and just makes a lot of sense to keep a grocery store in downtown Juneau and also keep its current employees there!
Good Move! Good News for the current A&P employees!
This is good news and just makes a lot of sense to keep a grocery store in downtown Juneau and also keep its current A & P employee there!
please reread the article Aynrand...
( and again it Myers not Meyers) This LLC has not taken a stance or publically commented on the Chik-fil-a issue. What the heck does your comment have anything to do with the fact that Myers Group LLC is considering a location in the former A&P location here in Juneau? Please try to stay on topic or at least reread the article for "comprehension". thank you.
And aynrand please provide a
And aynrand please provide a link with an exact quote where Dan Cathy said that black and white people should not be allowed to get married.
Otherwise, quit making stuff up to spread your hatred. You look like an idiot.
Give it a freakin' rest....
So, did you hear about that wild quote that the president of Chick-fil-A didn’t say the other day?
Here’s a piece of a CNN report that is typical of the mainstream press coverage of this latest cyber-skirmish in America’s battles over homosexuality, commerce and free speech (sort of).
(CNN) — The fact that Chick-fil-A is a company that espouses Christian values is no secret. The fact that its 1,600 fast-food chicken restaurants across the country are closed on Sundays has long been testament to that. But the comments of company President Dan Cathy about gay marriage to Baptist Press on Monday have ignited a social media wildfire.
“Guilty as charged,”, Cathy said when asked about his company’s support of the traditional family unit as opposed to gay marriage.
“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that,” Cathy is quoted as saying.
Now, one would assume — after reading a reference to the “comments of company President Dan Cathy about gay marriage” — that this interview from the Biblical Recorder in North Carolina (which was circulated by Baptist Press) actually included direct quotes from Cathy in which he talks about, well, gay marriage.
In this case, one cannot assume that.
While the story contains tons of material defending traditional Christian teachings on sexuality, the controversial entrepreneur never talks about gay rights or gay marriage. Why? Because he wasn’t asked about those issues in the interview.
This raises an interesting journalistic question: Is a defense of one doctrine automatically the same thing as an on-the-record attack on the opposite doctrine? In this case, is it accurate for CNN (and others) to say that Cathy made comments about gay marriage when, in fact, he did not speak words addressing that issue?
But wait, readers might say, everyone KNOWS what he was talking about! And, once his actual comments were quoted, kind of, in the mainstream press, it was then possible to quote many people who offered their angry reactions to his actual words because of their interpretation of them.
This is certainly true. It would have been easy to have quoted several of the tsunami of tweets, blog comments and other commentaries blasting Cathy for his defense of basic Christian doctrines. You know, those quotes that sound like this, drawing from the actual interview:
“We don’t claim to be a Christian business,” Cathy told the Biblical Recorder in a recent visit to North Carolina. He attended a business leadership conference many years ago where he heard Christian businessman Fred Roach say, “There is no such thing as a Christian business.”
“That got my attention,” Cathy said. Roach went on to say, “Christ never died for a corporation. He died for you and me.”
“In that spirit … [Christianity] is about a personal relationship. Companies are not lost or saved, but certainly individuals are,” Cathy added. “But as an organization we can operate on biblical principles. So that is what we claim to be. [We are] based on biblical principles, asking God and pleading with God to give us wisdom on decisions we make about people and the programs and partnerships we have. And He has blessed us.”
And the marriage thing?
The company invests in Christian growth and ministry through its WinShape Foundation (WinShape.com). The name comes from the idea of shaping people to be winners. It began as a college scholarship and expanded to a foster care program, an international ministry, and a conference and retreat center modeled after the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.
“That morphed into a marriage program in conjunction with national marriage ministries,” Cathy added.
Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. …
“We are very much committed to that,” Cathy emphasized. “We intend to stay the course,” he said. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”
So there is the context. It certainly would be easy for journalists to talk to the company’s critics and, thus, to establish a gay-rights context for this discussion, if that is the goal. But that isn’t my point, of course. That isn’t what CNN, and others, did in their reports. They reported that Cathy made comments, that he spoke words directly addressing gay-rights issues, that he delivered a series of negative, anti-gay remarks. In effect, Cathy is being quoted saying words that he said, as well as words that he did not say.
Thus, the author of the original Biblical Recorder story, K. Allan Blume, has since noted:
During a call-in radio interview Thursday (July 19) with WORD-FM in Pittsburgh, K. Allan Blume described his conversation with Chick-fil-A’s Dan Cathy as “very positive,” unlike how it is being portrayed in a variety of news reports. …
Many of those reports “turned [the original story] into a negative,” said Blume, adding the term “anti-gay” never came up in the June interview while Cathy was speaking in the Raleigh, N.C., area.
“He was not saying ‘guilty as charged anti-gay,’” Blume added. “[Cathy] never even brought up that subject. Everything he stated was on the positive side … He never stated anything negative.”
Picky, picky? Well, yes. It would have been so easy for the mainstream press to have reported Cathy’s remarks accurately and, then, to have accurately reported the comments of those who were more than happy to criticize the Chick-fil-A leader’s conservative views on marriage.
That equation is par for the journalistic course. But is it fair game to actually state, as fact, that the man said things that he didn’t say?
Why Didn't Jesus Get married to A Woman?
I have a hard time believing that there would be lines around the block at Burger King if its CEO gave an interview where he or she stated, "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage... black and white people should not be allowed to get married,'" and had also donated millions of dollars to white supremacist organizations.
Similarly, if the head of Taco Bell came out and said, "I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about -- women should be the property of their husbands and anything otherwise is against traditional marriage," I don't think we'd see food courts packed with folks rabidly demanding 10-packs of tacos
On track
Are you nuts? You want to ramble on about this stuff (above remarks) then write a letter to the editor. This has exactly nothing to do with the Myers group's interest in talking over for A&P
Should anyone be surprised
Should anyone be surprised that the lamestream media is becoming more and more irrelevant each day?
And it starts at the top with Obama and goes all the way down to the bottom feeders.
Did you ever think you'd see the day that they would have to resort to 'you didn't really hear those words coming out of my mouth' with BO's "you didn't build that" comments and 'I'm going to just ASSume that this is what Dan Cathy meant even though he never uttered the words'?
Are we living in an alternate universe or what?
Thank God for the internet.
I think you guys are a little
I think you guys are a little off topic. This thread is about a grocery company that is willing to go out and find a special kind of hummus setting up an outlet in Juneau. I don't think it has anything to do with some fast-food chicken franchise that, the last time I looked, didn't have an outlet in Juneau.
Hooray!
Hooray! Something new for Juneau. Maybe it will be the start of new beginnings to improve Juneau the capitol of Alaska. And, while making one new improvement keep on bringing in quality stores like department stores and nice restraunts. And, make improvements to the two malls by modernizing and putting in nice stores. Make Juneau look good and modernized. Its time for a major change Juneau. So, people why make rude comments when you should be asking for improvements for change to your town.
Money Talks . . .
Money talks and studies walk.
Hope all you suckers, uh, I mean investors, get some of your 5 Benjamins back.
COOP and Myers are not mutually exclusive
Perhaps the Co-op could start smaller and lease /rent the area of the old Salvation Army store where the old Don Abels used to be. The Co-op did not appear ready to take over on September 1 and Myers looks ready to step in and save many Juneau jobs.
Co-op concept is promising and looks like there is support, so with leadership and determination, it should grow. Starting out smaller is less risky and will provide co-op members a chance to learn and work toward bigger and better.
Opening a fresh seafood/fish market with local fishermen supplying might create a nice co-op niche market for Juneauites.
"Guilty as charged."
When asked point-blank by the Baptist Press during a recent interview if his company opposed same-sex marriage, Chick-fil-A President and COO Dan Cathy responded: "Guilty as charged."
Cathy doubled down on his remark, telling the Ken Coleman Show that supporting marriage equality was "inviting God's judgment on our nation."
He continued: "I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about."
Chick-fil-a has donated over 8 million dollars to organizations, such as Focus on the Family, that supported Proposition 8 in California.
I'd call all of that pretty discriminatory.
Hey Myers group! Please come
Hey Myers group! Please come in but only if you can promise good product. No last season apples, mushy moldy onions etc. if you plan on the same level of garbage the other stores provide, don't bother coming. Otherwise, welcome!!!
"Should anyone be surprised
"Should anyone be surprised that the lamestream media is becoming more and more irrelevant each day?
And it starts at the top with Obama and goes all the way down to the bottom feeders. "
Shut up calypso. Just shut up.
just saying
why is bigomy illegal? I hope the homosexual battle includes the notion of multiple wives. I sure could use a few more. Why not? Why should government say that I can only have one wife? Oh and by the way A firend of mines cousins friend says that Meyer's owners HAVE eaten at Chik Fil A!!!
concerned, bigamy essentially defrauds the US government.
Marriage is a legal bond between two consenting adults. With it comes government financial benefits. Bigamy is considered the abuse of marriage, as there being no limit on the number of financially beneficial spouses one could have. Do you understand? And it's spelled 'bigamy', by the way.
I've heard the argument from rightwingers suggesting if we legalize gay marriage that we should legalize beastiality, or pedophilia as well, because to morons, it appears to be one and the same. FYI, it's not, and when people use this as an argument it makes them (you) look stupid.
And what does it have to do with the article? 31 comments... about 20 of them regarding chic-fil-a or gay marriage... or even "lamestream" media... all over a meyers (this was for you countthis because the 'e' makes all the difference in the world) LLC interest. Good luck on the grocery store, by the way. With A&P going something needs to replace it.