New store rises at the Y

SUNSHINE — If a man’s home is his castle, what’s his store?

For Greg Pearson of Palmer, the future site of Cubby’s Marketplace supermarket is his campground.

Concrete is being poured this week on land near Mile 98.4 of the Parks Highway, Greg Pearson’s wife and business partner Lisa Pearson said. Greg Pearson decided to live on the site in a camper for a week or two and keep an eye on a quantity of lumber and other materials waiting to be used next week when the Pearsons hope materials for the 14,274-square-foot store’s outer shell will arrive.

The new store will also feature a Knik Country Liquors outlet, said liquor store owner Greg Hart. He has three other stores in the Mat-Su Valley.

“I look forward to serving the community,” Hart said, adding Cubby’s will be good for the community and he looks forward to also serving the Upper Susitna Valley. A small selection of wine, beer and hard alcohol is sold at a nearby gas station, but the nearest full-service liquor store to the Cubby’s site is more than 14 miles away in downtown Talkeetna.

Talkeetna-area residents eager to avoid a long drive to Wasilla for groceries are also keeping an eye out for progress at the site.

“It’s been nice. People are calling and saying they’re supportive of it,” Lisa Pearson said.

The Pearsons have wanted to build their own store for years. They manage D&A Shop Rite in Wasilla, but Greg Pearson has taken on the full-time job of organizing the new business while Lisa is running the Wasilla store. Their new market will not be a Shop Rite, but will work with Shop Rite’s owner to buy groceries in bulk as a strategy for keeping prices down in the Upper Su Valley, an area where food sold in smaller local shops can be costly compared with prices in Wasilla.

Over the weekend and on Monday a small crew, including Greg Pearson, was seen working on the new store’s foundation.

“We got lucky it warmed up,” Lisa Pearson said.

Original plans had the foundation set and the building rising in October. Now the Pearsons hope they can still get the place ready and open Cubby’s Marketplace next April or May. Warmer temperatures melted much of the snow on their freshly cleared land. Concrete trucks now have easy access to the site.

Lisa Pearson said the store’s slab foundation will be poured once the roof is on and the building enclosed. Then the serious interior construction work can begin.

“It’s been slow but we’re trying to move things along,” she said.

The store will have a “help wanted” sign on it when the Pearsons are ready to hire employees, she said.

When finished, Cubby's Marketplace will be the only supermarket for more than 40 miles between Talkeetna and the Wasilla/Big Lake area offering a large variety of food, dry goods and fresh produce. Greg Pearson expects to create 15 to 20 part- and full-time jobs when the business opens.