FIle photo - Non-winter Nokomis Co-op
- BY JENNIFER ARGUE, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
January 17th, 2022
Jannis Zimmer has been the new Manager since December at the Nokomis Co-op gas and agro centre, and she’s happy the doors are finally open. She said the first day was busy. “It was a good day.”
The essential community business closed suddenly at the end of August due to a lack of staff. When the doors remained shuttered, Mayor David Mark started a public campaign to get the doors open. Co-op General Manager, Ward Bruner, maintained that it remained closed because he couldn’t find people to staff the positions. There are vacancies at other locations, not only in Nokomis. The Raymore Home Centres hours were also reduced due to staffing.
To get the doors open, the Manager of the Co-op grocery store will be working alongside Zimmer with the new hours. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9-6 pm. “Everything is the same as before, I have feed coming in. Once more members tell me exactly what it is they are looking for I can bring other stuff in. Because I didn’t know what they had previously.”
Zimmer said most customers were in good humour about the opening, and some were unhappy with the limited days and length of time it took to get open. She has been tasked with hiring a full-time and a part-time person as they look to expand the number of open days.
She was excited to get up and going. “It makes for a better day. I’ve been doing alot of training so it’s nice to be able to put it into place now.”
Mayor David Mark is happy that the doors have finally opened. “Now that its open the conversation can change now to where we want. And pickup where we left off.” Mark said he’d like to see agri-services expand. He emphasized how vital local services are in the town and said he called Zimmer to thank her for her hard work in getting the doors open.
