Ten months after heavy snows collapsed the roof of the only grocery store in Chama, Lowe’s Chama Valley Supermarket reopened Dec. 17 amid heavy fanfare and more than a foot of snow on the ground.
The store’s celebration featured live music, free hotdogs, a speech by Chama Mayor Archie Vigil, a blessing by a priest and hundreds of eager shoppers.
Michael Starnes, of Chama, was the first customer in the door.
“This will have a tremendous effect on the community,” Starnes said. “We won’t have to add $20 or $30 for gas to our grocery bill, anymore.”
“This one’s a thousand times better than what was here before,” Chama resident Lynne Burton beamed. “Now it’s like a real supermarket, with more interesting foods. We’ve all been deprived up here, but the new store is well stocked. It is well lighted and has big aisles.”
Lowe’s Chief Executive Officer Roger Lowe Jr. was on hand for the grand opening.
“This is twice the store they had before. It was a complete rebuild from the slab up,” Lowe Jr. said of the new 19,000-square-foot store. “We purchased the store just a couple of months before the (roof) collapse. The old building was condemned. We had just remodeled the old store and stocked the new hardware section when the roof collapsed. Insurance only covered about half the cost, but we made a commitment to stay.”
Lowe Jr. said he would not disclose the cost of rebuilding the store because it would reveal sensitive insurance information.
The new store, which Lowe said is equipped with a pitched and stronger than necessary roof, is one of the chain’s five hardware and grocery “combo stores” and first in Northern New Mexico. The collapse created an opportunity to better tailor the store to Chama’s needs, Lowe said.
“We took a hard look at the Chama community and listened to residents,” he explained. “We made the store more organic and put in a huge selection of 700 varieties of liquor and wine.”
Lowe calls the new building “a bit of a concept store, built to be green.” From LED lighting to energy-efficient frozen food cases, the store is designed to use less electricity. Even the flooring is made of a special synthetic cork-textured “green” material.
“The Lowes went above and beyond for our employees” during the rebuilding,” store manager Robert Giron Jr. said. “At the time of the roof collapse, I had 21 employees. A couple resigned but I drove 19 of them to the Española store. Over the past 10 months that got whittled down to 11 workers. We took two company vehicles and drove them down to Española each day.”
The store’s roof collapsed after more than three feet of snow fell on Chama during the first week of February. Governor Bill Richardson declared Rio Arriba County a disaster area and sent in National Guardsmen to help with the recovery in the aftermath of the storm. Not everyone is upset the old store took a hit.
“A lot of us were happy to see the old one collapse,” customer Burton laughed. “When Lowe’s came in, they brought in new management and there was some unfriendly service. Everyone complained. But we’re very happy with what they’ve done with the new store.”
Most customers emphasized a sense of relief that they would no longer have to travel to Dulce or Española to shop.
“We learned to make lists before,” Cathy Starnes said. “Family Dollar and Sundial kept some staples for us here in Chama, and the 7-11. It wasn’t enough, though. You’d need something and not be able to get it. We feel appreciative that Lowe’s rebuilt.”
Snow and power outages delayed the store’s reopening, Lowe Jr. said.