Cairo’s only grocery store fights to stay open

CAIRO, Ill. (KBSI) – A grocery store is asking for the public’s help to get shelves full again.

Residents of Cairo were without a grocery store for nearly seven years before Rise Community Market opened , but do to some new challenges they could once again be without access to groceries.  

The market opened its doors in June, just 6 months ago. Providing residents with a grocery store for the first time since 2015.  Robert Edwards is the general manager of Rise Community Market he says before Rise opened people had to drive quite a distance to get food. 

“We’ve had some issues with some of our cases breaking on us,” said Edwards. “We lost well over $1,000 worth of product when our walk-in cooler broke on us in the middle of the night one night. Then the cost of having equipment repaired and everything has made it difficult as well.” 

Rise Community Market is still open with normal business hours, but shelves aren’t as full as they have been, and they are limited on how much product they can hold with several of their coolers down. Edwards says what people may not realize is that they are a coop grocery store, so they aren’t owned by a national chain.  

“This is owned by the people of the community and the people that have wanted to see this as part of the community, so the support of the community is what made this a reality what’s needed for this to continue to be a reality is for the community to continue to support us,” said Edwards. 

He says he has hopes in the future of providing the WIC Program to residents and to have a meat counter.

If you would like to help Rise Community Market they have a GoFundMe account linked under their Facebook page, or you can donate through Rise Community Market – Rise Community Market.