Price Cutter inks deal for Summer Fresh stores

The employee-owned Price Cutter operates 46 supermarkets in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, under the names Price Cutter, Country Mart and Bistro Market locally. The Summer Fresh deal puts Price Cutter above the 50-store mark across southwest Missouri and pushes its coverage into four states.

“It gives us better regional coverage between Springfield and the western side of the state,” said Brooks, noting Price Cutter’s four stores in the Joplin market. “A lot of those stores are kind of peppered in smaller communities in between.”

Summer Fresh, founded by David Trottier and owned by Brent Brown and Summer Trottier, has doubled its store count in recent years, according to a Price Cutter news release. Eight stores operate as Summer Fresh Supermarkets in Lamar, El Dorado Springs, Marshfield, Conway, Mount Vernon, Fair Grove, Greenfield and Carl Junction, while two under the Save-A-Lot banner are in Baxter Springs, Kan., and at 1117 E. Commercial St. The north Springfield store – a $1 million renovation project – marked Summer Fresh’s re-entry into the market after selling its south Springfield store to Community Blood Center of the Ozarks in fall 2007.

Brooks said Price Cutter does not plan to change the stores’ names. Price Cutter President and CEO Erick Taylor said in the release Summer Fresh’s 300 associates would come on as employee-owners at Price Cutter, a subsidiary of Pyramid Foods Inc.

The Springfield grocery market has tightened in recent years with the addition of four Walmart Neighborhood Markets and a Hy-Vee supermarket within the city. Springfield City Council last night passed a rezoning bill that paves the way for a second Hy-Vee store, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials are reportedly negotiating for land at Campbell Avenue and Grand Street for a fifth Neighborhood Market.

In July 2011, Summer Fresh President and CEO Brown told Springfield Business Journal the Springfield grocery market was overbuilt.

“In my opinion, this market is over-stored. I’m surprised that the other retailers that are coming to town – obviously, they see an opportunity – but I’m surprised that they don’t see that it’s over-stored,” said Brown, whose market experience dates back to working for Smitty’s Supermarkets in the 1980s and ’90s.

Brown could not be reached for comment by deadline.

In recent years, Price Cutter has expanded its offerings with the development of a Bistro Market downtown and the opening of a Price Cutter Plus Supermarket with expanded salad bar and hot food options at the corner of Chestnut Expressway and West Bypass. The company has not moved on plans to build a store at Republic Road and West Bypass.

“It is our intention to strengthen the Summer Fresh stores, leveraging our buying power to provide customers with greater product variety and better pricing, thereby enabling these stores to successfully thrive in an increasingly competitive market environment,” Price Cutter’s Taylor said in the release. “We believe where you shop matters. By choosing a locally and employee-owned supermarket, shoppers know they are supporting the communities they call home and protecting valuable jobs.”