VIllage Foods owners borrow to fill shelves

Village Foods IGA on Snoqualmie Ridge, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, is borrowing $205,000 to beef up its inventory.

“We’re getting enough inventory to take care of our customers, who we haven’t been taking care of as well as we’d like to,” co-owner Pete Ferren told the Valley Record last month.

The only grocery store on the Ridge, Village Foods has struggled to turn a profit since it opened three months behind schedule in February 2006, according to Bankruptcy Court documents.

Income losses from the delayed opening, along with overstaffing issues and a loss of $60,000 in inventory when food spoiled during the December 2006 power outages, led to lower inventories, according to a declaration Farren made to the court last month.

The total value of inventory was about half what it should have been, Ferren wrote on March 24, and that lack of inventory led to lower-than-projected sales.

Of the $205,000 loan, $135,000 will be spent on inventory. Another $50,000 will create a reserve for “general working capital,” and $20,000 will go to loan fees.

Ferren denied rumors that the store would be changing hands in a March phone interview with the Valley Record.

“People have been saying that for a while. There’s no truth in it. The core of what we’re doing is what ‘reorganization’ implies,” he said.

Village Foods IGA is located at 7730 Center Blvd. S.E.

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