Polo Food Center shuts its doors

POLO – The owner of this small town’s only grocery store said tough economic times and competition from big-box retailers forced him to close his doors for good Monday night.

“The economy has been bad. It’s hard for a small business to survive. It’s so sad,” said Yong Shin of Sandwich.

Competition from Dollar General, which recently opened on the other side of town, plus Wal-Marts in neighboring towns, such as Dixon, Sterling, Freeport and Rockford, squeezed the small-town grocer’s bottom line, Shin said Tuesday.

The Polo Food Center on South Division Street had been the city’s only grocery store for decades, though Shin owned the store for the past 3 years and battled decreasing business throughout, he said.

Lower prices at out-of-town grocers lured customers away from his smaller store, he said, especially after layoffs at PNC Inc., which makes parts for the automotive and hydraulic industries, put several area residents out of work.

“A lot of people in Polo don’t have jobs. They want the cheaper prices,” Shin said. “I needed to make $2,000 to $3,000 a day, and I was only making about $1,000.

“Small-town people need to support their small businesses,” Shin said.

Polo Mayor Mark Scholl said the city will miss having a local grocer. The city’s new Dollar General store stocks staple items but can’t provide the same services as an in-town grocer, he said.

“I’m not so worried about the economic loss, as what it provides for the community,” Scholl said. “The elderly and people who don’t travel much out of Polo won’t have the opportunity to do their shopping here in town.”

The nearest grocer now is a County Market in north Dixon, about a 20-minute drive, a far cry from the 10- to-15-minute walk to the Polo Food Center.

When Shin bought the store 3 years ago, he had 25 employees, but as business dropped off, that number dwindled. He closed with eight or nine on staff, he said.

Shin said he was concerned about not being able to pay his employees and decided it was time to call it quits, adding that he hopes to find another business to lease the building.