HOMETOWN HEROES

From page evenings and just kind of stuck with it.

“It was a family business, so it was always part of the family.” And while the elder Arlan acknowledges that it’s nice to have his family involved, the store also has “a lot of people that have been with us a long time that we feel like are all part of the family,” he said.

“We build relationships with the customers,” his son added. “We hire from the neighborhood, especially the hourly employees. A lot of times, it’s the teenagers working on the weekends…they stay with us from high school, and they go off to college, and they come back for Christmas break, and they’re working with us again. You get to know their families.”

And Ames Arlan recalled a time when the associates and customers alike gave back, without question or anything in return.

“When Hurricane Harvey hit [in 2018], we had every store around us stay closed for days. But I called Nick. I knew my street was flooded, and Nick has a house about three or four blocks away,” he said. “I told him I would meet him at the end of the street, and we’re going to get that store open, no matter what.

“I waded down, got in his truck, and we got there. We started just asking for volunteer help to come in. And we ended up selling everything to the bare walls because we couldn’t get really any inventory for a few days, but we are the only grocery store around.”

Nick Arlan added, “During those times…we even had people that hadn’t worked with us in years – they’d gone on and started their own careers, and they just showed up just ready to work to help us during those times. One particular person brought in his new wife and put her to work, too. They’re engineers now, but they were still there to help us.”

“Our first opportunity to expand was two stores that were going to be foreclosed on. They weren’t making any money, and they had not had any type of upkeep,” Ames Arlan said.

John Smith (from left), son-in-law of Ames Arlan, stands with Nick and Ames Arlan

Part of the dedication from communities in which they serve comes from Arlan’s expanding to areas where grocery stores are needed.