Marion Gains a Grocery Store and Pharmacy

By Genine Hopkins

The Village of Marion lost its pharmacy over a decade ago. This year, the village lost
both its grocery store and newspaper. Many people have been very disheartened about losing so
much in their hometown. Residents of the Village and Township of Marion, Middle Branch
Township, Winterfield Township, and Redding Township in Clare County, now have a grocery
home – and soon will also have a pharmacy home as well!

But at least two of those losses are turning around.

The M & J Food Market had its soft open on the opening day of gun season, November
15, 2024. While the main goal of Mark Kibby and his mother Judy Grandy (formerly Kibby)
was to open as quickly as possible – before winter – and some of the wonderful ideas are still
being shaped and formed, there was food in the facility so open they did and Marion folks can
now enjoy local shopping once again. It will be CASH ONLY until their debit machines are
installed (unfortunately no Bridge or WIC cards yet), and there won’t be beer and wine, no
cigarettes as of yet either, as they are waiting on all the proper paperwork. But food? Yes!
Judy Kibby was the original owner of the building, along with her first husband, who
sadly passed away some time ago. The Kibbys had sold the business to Ashcraft’s long ago and
Judy watched as varying iterations of a grocery store cycled in the building – first when Spartan
purchased Ashcrafts and the two different types of Spartan stores both Family Fare and
ValuLand – and the family endured more losses to their numbers. Mark one of Judy’s sons, had
relocated to Mexico and intended to firmly stay there, selling all his belongings. But as Marion’s
Village Market began to have its own problems (the last iteration of store names that abruptly
ended this spring), Mark’s children wanted to move back to live with their grandmother, Judy, to
finish out their last two years of high school with their friends. This saw Mark traveling often
between Marion and Mexico to see his children.

Then came the crushing news: Marion Village Market was closing and the potential sale
to Roger’s of Lake City was not really progressing at all. Both Mark and Judy watched from the
sidelines as the closing sign was placed on what had been their beloved grocery store, and also
saw the suffering of the people of Marion, their neighbors and friends, as they struggled to find a
new location to do their shopping. While Ebels now had an Evart location, the drive was still
half an hour in good weather and with the gas prices bouncing up and down on its dizzying ride
this summer, many just couldn’t afford to make the trip. Cadillac has multiple grocers including
the big box names of both Meijer and Walmart, but again, the trip took gas and time, both of
which many Marion folks just didn’t have. Mark began to realize that the family needed to do
something because he could no longer stand by and watch the former family store begin to
decay. Now all he had to do was convince his mother.

That would prove a bit more difficult. Judy really didn’t feel as though she wanted to
take on the role she had played before with being a grocery store owner. It was hard work and
she was happy in her retirement years. Both Mark and Judy began to fix up the facility to place
the property on the market and besides being shocked at the condition of the store – Mark said it
looked as though the past two owners had done absolutely no maintenance – and Mark ordered
an appraisal. That proved to be the catalyst for his idea to move back from Mexico and help
reopen the store.

Mark believed and began to nudge Judy to reinvest in their community. Over the summer
as they continued to clean and polish the interior, Mark worked away at his mother, telling her he
was ready to do this until that moment on September 14, 2024, when his mother finally turned to
him and said, “We need to do this.” Which leads us to the wonderous ideas both Mark and Judy
have come up with for the Village of Marion.

“Marion and the surrounding townships have a high rate of poverty, low average income,
large population over the age of 60. We have people who are shut-ins and lack transportation to
get to and from anywhere let alone a grocery store. We lost our pharmacy and not one person
seemed to be willing to bring one back, and the Village lost its grocery store; that really hurt
people,” Mark told The Cadillac News.

That was what prompted Mark to not only re-open the grocery store, but add features as
well, and that means a tele-pharmacy. It will exist within the store and be manned by a
Pharmacy Assistant, who will be able to fill the prescriptions while it will also have a pharmacist
via the virtual world, who can answer questions for customers. So Marion citizens will once
again be able to get their prescriptions in their hometown.

There will also be a full-serve bakery and deli, complete with hot foods for quick meals.
The bakery is a unique concept in which Mark is figuratively investing in a local business – the
Cupcake Mafia – by employing them as staff for the bakery during business hours while
allowing them use of the kitchen as an “incubator” for their own business. M&J Food Market
will also sell the brand at the store.

High school kids will have a place they can work as well.

“When my mom and dad had the business before, we always employed high school kids,
their first job,” Mark said, “Without local employers most high school kids can’t find their first
job. That first job is crucial in setting the tone of how they work their entire lives.”

M&J Food Market is also working with MMI to help individuals who have conditions
that make it difficult to find employment. MMI provides the job coaches who travel and help
these employees with skills needed for a successful life on their own.

Employees will be offered benefits. As much as possible M&J will provide locally
sourced products, as they work with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. They will be
partnering with the 4H kids who raise stock as well. Hot dog wagons for non-profit fundraising.
Permanent electrical and water outside so food trucks can be brought into the area. Mark has a
lot of ambition on how he plans to help his community. He is also making sure the price point is
soft enough for people to be able to afford food.

Mark was quick to add that none of this would have been possible without a childhood
friend, someone he went through the grades within Marion himself years ago: Aric Scott. Scott
has been his right hand going through this process while continuing to get everything together
for the soft open.

This entire story, coming full circle, is how small communities stay vibrant.
Reinvestment, people willing to take a risk and help each other out. Solving problems. Working
together. Marion is, as the old TV show song to the Jeffersons used to say, “a movin’ on up.”