Webinars & Workshops
About Keeping Groceries Alive
Grocery stores are critical businesses in rural communities: they serve as essential sources of healthy food, they drive local economies, and they provide space for community members to gather and connect.
So when a grocery store closes, the community loses out. In order to maintain vibrant rural grocery stores over the long-term, grocers and communities must plan ahead.
This eight-part webinar series will present the steps for completing a successful grocery business transition. In many cases, some form of community or shared ownership model provides a viable opportunity for maintaining a vibrant rural grocery store. Each webinar will explore a different topic pertinent to successful business transitions.
Webinar Topics
Click the links below to find the recording, slides, and additional materials for each webinar in the Keeping Groceries Alive series.
1. Grocery Business Transition Planning: An Overview
2. Understanding Grocery Ownership Models
3. Preparing for Business Transition
4. Assessing Markets & Community Needs
5. Planning your Business
6. Funding the Transition
7. Recruiting Store Managers
8. Mastering Grocery Store Nuts & Bolts
About the Grocery Business Transition Mentorship Program
The Grocery Business Transition Mentorship Program provides rural Kansans with in-depth, customized technical assistance on a range of topics related to grocery business transitions, such as creating a business plan, assessing markets and community needs, establishing a community-owned grocery store, and more. It is an extension of the Keeping Groceries Alive webinar series.
To learn more about this program, click here.
Sponsors and Partners
This webinar series is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation through the Heartland Challenge.
It is presented by the Rural Grocery Initiative, in partnership with Kansas State Research and Extension, NetWork Kansas, the Kansas Rural Center, the Food Co-Op Initiative, and the Kansas Center for Business Transition.
