Save Seibert from becoming a Food Desert

Thank you in advance for checking out our GoFundMe as we make a push to save Seibert from becoming a food desert. We're raising money to help support Seibert and bring food back to it as quickly as possible. 

A little about Seibert
Just about 40 miles from the border of Kansas is the small agricultural town of Seibert, Colorado. When the railroad came through Colorado in 1888, water stops were established. Seibert, which was named for Henry Seibert, an official of the railroad who donated books for a library, was developed from one of these stations.

Since the workers needed food, the first business moved in to town was a restaurant. The railroad grading crew used their mule teams to haul the building to town from another site. It wasn't long before other merchants moved their businesses to Seibert including the W.B. Davis General Merchandise store which provided food to the residents. In little time, Seibert became an important stop on the railroad.

More Seibert History from County Archives 


Seibert Supers Grocery Store Closes
Now approximately 200 people call Seibert home and they rely on the local small store, Seibert Supers, for groceries and other necessities. Many of the residents lack the means or mobility to get to stores in neighboring towns. The next closest store is almost 15 miles away, and the closest large grocery store chain is more than an hour.

This morning as we drove up we noticed the 'open' sign in the window wasn't lit, even though it was well past the 9am open time. Then we noticed the handwritten sign on the door saying the store was closed. 



We shouldn't have been surprised. The cash register broke a month ago and hadn't been fixed. We hadn't seen fresh fruit or produce in awhile too.  But, we still thought that maybe now the cash register was getting fixed or some other maintenance was happening and stood wondering aloud why the store might be closed. Right about then we saw one of the locals coming out of the post office and learned from them this was not a temporary closure for maintenance.

The store owners were inside packing everything up.


Who Are We
We're Joe and Civvy; husband and wife and business partners. We met 10 years ago in NJ, then moved to GA for several years where we married and earned our MBA's together with the the intention of starting our own business. We did that last year when we purchased a small campground and rv park in Seibert and moved out from GA. We quickly grew to love the town and the Colorado plains and now call Seibert home.

How We'll Use the Funds
We have two plans for how we'll use the funds depending on how successful our fundraiser is. Plan A allows for a small convenience style type store for necessities and Plan B would allow for partial or full reopening of the grocery store.

Plan A:

In December of 2020 we purchased a couple old and out of service buildings in town with the intent of fixing them up. We've just gotten a contractor lined up to put a new roof on one of the buildings which will bring it that much closer to being a viable business space.

If we're unable to reopen the grocery store, we can use this much smaller building as a convenience style type store to provide essentials like milk, bread, and canned goods. Locals will still need to travel a distance for some shopping, but would at least have an option within walking distance for staple and emergency grocery items.

Plan B:
If the fundraiser is wildly successful then we'll use the money to work with town officials to reopen the existing grocery store and make operational improvements to remain viable.

An area of opportunity would be to reopen the existing deli counter which was closed as a safety precaution during Covid. This was a positive revenue generator for the store in the past and could be again.

We'll increase viability through operational improvements to reduce costs. The store tends to run more refrigeration than needed for rotating inventory levels. We'll consolidate inventory to reduce refrigeration costs.

The store also suffered from high costs due to scarcity of inventory. Getting vendors and suppliers here or even close to here can be difficult and costly. Vendors will also tend to favor their larger customers which can sometimes result in Seibert not having access to inventory. We'll partner with other area store owners to increase our overall buying power and help reduce inventory costs.

We'll investigate a structural reorganization such as operating as a co-op or non-profit. The store previously functioned successfully as a co-op before the existing ownership. Wether Co-op or non-profit, the focus would be which organization provides the greatest potential for success long-term.

Your Support Matters to Seibert
Thank you again for taking the time to learn a little about our town and our grocery store. Over the last year as we've lived and operated our business here we've come to know this town and the people. They've welcomed us with open arms and made us feel like family. With your support, we hope we can give back a little.

Thank you!