K & S Country Market closing after nearly 7 decades

Sept. 30 will mark the end of the K & S Country Market, a mom-and-pop grocery store located at 614 E. Second St. The store, which has been a part of Bloomington since the 1940s, is going out of business. \nAccording to owner Scott Misheikis, the K & S is similar to any large chain supermarket such as Kroger or Marsh, just smaller. Instead of a large corporate environment, the market has a more intimate atmosphere, he said. \nSome local residents thought competition with large corporate stores was causing the K & S to close, since the South College Road Kroger is less than half a mile down the street, but that is not necessarily the case. Misheikis said that although business at the grocery was flourishing, it had no choice but to close after the store’s landlords, F.C. Tucker/OBR Realtors sold the property.\nRepresentatives from F.C. Tucker/OBR Realtors could not be reached by press time. \n“The local people here are so personable, and you got to know their families and their kids because you see them every day,” Scott Misheikis said. “It really has a family feel.” \nSupported primarily by Bloomington residents, the K & S Country Market may not have appealed to many students. \n“It’s really small and kind of inconvenient for a lot of students,” senior Erin Larson said. “They don’t carry as many products as Kroger or Marsh, where you can get more shopping done at once.” \nOther students, though, were disappointed to see the closing signs in the windows of K & S. \n“It’s upsetting,” said junior Don Ueber. “It is two blocks from my house so I can just walk over there when I need something. Now, it will probably just become another rundown eyesore in an overgrown lot.” \nThe K & S family shares Ueber’s sentiments. With a small staff, the employees at the country market have truly come to be like family, Scott said, and everyone is disappointed to see the store’s end. \nLuckily for Scott and his wife Kelly, however, they will still have much to keep them busy. They still own the bar, The Office Lounge, and have two sons ages 3 and 8, so a life without the K & S will still be busy. \n“It’s really too bad, but it’s time to move on,” Scott said. “It’s just unfortunate how things turned out.”