Monday will be the first day of business for US. Foods CHEF’STORE, a retailer opening at 810 Port Drive in Clarkston.
The business caters to owners of small restaurants and food carts, but allows anyone to shop at the store without charging membership fees, said Ryan Weedon, director of marketing for the chain.
Shredded cheese in 5-pound bags or 20-pound cases, seven-count packages of Romaine lettuce and 10-, 25- or 50-pound bags of potatoes are some of the items it will sell, as well as merchandise like containers for take-out food, Weedon said.
The hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday for the general public, with the store opening at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday for business owners.
The store is part of a chain of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores, which are being rebranded to US. Foods CHEF’STORE Monday.
The chain was purchased by US. Foods Holding Corp. in Rosemont, Ill., from funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, according to news releases from US. Foods Holding Corp.
US. Foods is a food service distributor with more than $28 billion in annual revenue, according to the news releases. The $970 million deal closed in April.
The chain will have 80 stores Monday with the opening of Clarkston and another location in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
McCann family expands cattle business with addition of Wyoming Red Angus herd
More than 75 buyers from as far away as Georgia, California and Illinois bid on 125 bulls and eight heifers offered by McCann Ranch & Livestock Co. at a recent auction in Billings, Mont.
The Feb. 20 event came after McCann Ranch & Livestock Co. roughly doubled its cattle operations with the acquisition of the Crump Red Angus herd from the Crump family in Arvada, Wyo., in November, said William V. McCann Jr., president of McCann Ranch & Livestock.
The Crump cattle are high-end animals with great genetics, McCann said.
“That’s why there was interest from near and far,” he said. “It went really well. We were really fortunate.”
The auction was a continuation of an annual auction the Crumps started. The McCanns made a few changes, such as moving it from Buffalo, Wyo., to Billings, Mont., which has better access to commercial passenger flights.
It also was an extension of a connection between the McCann and Crump families that started about nine years ago.
Like the Crumps’ business, McCann’s is a family operation, with McCann’s wife, Lori, serving as secretary/treasurer of McCann Ranch & Livestock and their son, Jason Beck, serving as cattle manager.
Beck found the Crumps when he was looking for some quality Red Angus bulls to develop the McCann herd, according to the sales book for the auction.
“We started purchasing the Crump bulls and watched our herd improve immediately,” according to the sales book. “The mothers had better milk production, raised bigger and stronger calves, which turned into better profits upon weaning and selling the calves.”
The ties between the two families grew, culminating in McCann’s purchase in November, with nine semitrucks bringing to Idaho all animals but the ones sold in Billings.
Lindsay Creek Vineyards in Lewiston seeking a buyer
A Lewiston winery that is an extension of a more than century-old family farm is for sale.
The listing for Lindsay Creek Vineyards includes the business’s tasting room, its 9,000-square-foot event center, a small amount of property for parking and a number of grapevines that will be determined when the deal is negotiated, said Art McIntosh, one of the owners.
About 40 percent of the grapes the winery uses are ones they raise themselves, and the remainder come from other sources, he said.
“We just feel like this is a good time in our life to see if there’s any interest in it,” said McIntosh, who owns the business with his wife, Michelle McIntosh, his brother, Doug McIntosh, and his brother’s wife, Brenda McIntosh.
They are approaching retirement age, and the pandemic presented several challenges, he said.
“We were shut down about three months in the tasting room, and that hurt us,” McIntosh said.
It has reopened, but is running at reduced capacity. Most of the weddings were canceled last summer, and those who canceled weren’t charged any fees.
That trend continued during the holidays. Idaho was in Stage 2 of its coronavirus precautions, which limited gatherings to 10 or fewer people and eliminated Christmas parties.
This summer is looking a lot better. Almost every weekend is booked already, and McIntosh said he called everyone who’s hosting a gathering in the next year to let them know that, if the winery sells, the reservations will be honored.
“I’m still running (the business as if) I’m going to be running it 10 years from now,” he said.
National retailers in region partner with delivery company
Instacart, an international company that delivers groceries and other items to customers, has entered the north central Idaho and southeastern Washington market.
Shoppers can order items at www.instacart.com or through a mobile app from national retailers that differ from town to town.
The participating chains in Lewiston include Albertsons, Big Lots, Staples, Rite Aid and Petco; Albertsons and Costco have signed on with Instacart in Clarkston.
Safeway, Staples, Bed Bath & Beyond and Petco are the stores for which it does deliveries in Moscow. Orders from Safeway and Rite Aid are available in Pullman.
Customers pay with credit cards or debit cards to cover the cost of the merchandise as well as delivery and service fees, plus optional tips, according to a statement from Instacart.
Orders can be delivered in as little as one hour.
Coronavirus job losses already mostly erased in north central Idaho
North central Idaho is closer to recovery from the economic losses it suffered during the coronavirus pandemic than the rest of the United States.
That’s the take of economist Kathryn Tacke in a recently-issued report. Tacke works for the Idaho Department of Labor and has been following the area’s economy for decades.
Overall, the unemployment rate in Nez Perce, Latah, Idaho, Clearwater and Lewis counties was 4.7 percent in December, compared with 6.7 percent in the U.S. in the same month.
In December of 2019, before COVID-19 hit, north central Idaho’s unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, compared with 3.5 percent nationwide.
A number of factors contributed to the strong local numbers, particularly growth in manufacturing.
“While U.S. manufacturing jobs fell 4.9 percent between December 2019 and December 2020, Idaho manufacturing jobs grew 4.9 percent,” Tacke wrote. “Idaho was the fastest growing state. Only five other states experienced manufacturing growth, while three states lost more than 10 percent of their manufacturing jobs. The region’s manufacturing employment expanded even faster than Idaho’s, growing an estimated 7.6 percent between Dec. 2019 and Dec. 2020.”
More than 350 manufacturing jobs were added during that time, she wrote.
“The national ammunition shortage and a surge in gun purchases raised employment at Vista Outdoor’s ammunition plant in Lewiston from 1,000 jobs to 1,200,” Tacke wrote. “It also increased employment at the region’s gun and gun parts manufacturers by 30 jobs.”
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, the region’s largest private employer, added 30 jobs in Lewiston, bringing its total to 620 at that location while the aluminum boat industry gained 18 jobs.
But retail was one of the industries that suffered, losing 180 jobs in Nez Perce County in 2020 partly because of the closures of Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Rue 21 and Pier 1.
“COVID-19 reduced spending by locals and tourists, along with the long-term downward pressures on brick and mortar stores,” Tacke wrote.
Online tool for business to be showcased in free, virtual event
A free, online demonstration of SizeUp Inland NW is set for 2 p.m., Wednesday.
SizeUp Inland NW is a tool that helps business owners rank their business performance compared to industry competitors, discover potential customers and suppliers, better understand the competitive landscape, use advertising to target ideal customer segments and find ways to save their ventures money.
The insights are delivered using hundreds of public and proprietary data sources covering demographic, geographic, labor, wage, cost, consumer spending and transportation, which are updated regularly, according to a news release from Inland Northwest Partners, a not-for-profit group, which is sponsoring the tool with Avista.
Sign up for the webinar is available at inwp.org/sizeup-inlandnw/.
