Published: July 13, 2008 12:33 am            

Neighborhood grocer

When Charles Fowler started in the grocery business, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his first term.

Fowler, owner and manager of Consumers (909 W. Sixth Ave.), started working part-time at a grocery store in 1955 and got into the business full-time in 1960.

He and his wife, Joann, moved to Stillwater so he could manage the store in 1971. He bought it in 1994.

“They couldn’t run me off, I so thought I might as well buy it,” Fowler, 68, said.

Fowler works six days a week and said he is on the phone with the store the seventh. He doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.

“As long as we’re all happy and business is here...” Fowler said.

He added, “They will probably prop me up in front of the front door one of these days.”

Fowler grew up in Parsons, Kan. He started working in the business after serving six months in the army.

The journey brought him to Stillwater, where he and his wife raised three children. The couple recently celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary.

“Marrying Joann, that’s the best decision of my life,” Fowler said. “That’s for sure. She’s a wonderful lady, and to put up with a groceryman for 48 years, you’d have to be.”

She has been a beautician in Stillwater for 30 years.

Meanwhile, he does a little bit of everything at his store, including sacking groceries and taking them to the car for customers.

“I certainly believe if there is a light bulb that needs to be changed, I can change that bulb if it will help somebody else out, help service out,” Fowler said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Fowler said service is not a dying breed, as some say. He believes good service brings customers back.

“I enjoy people,” Fowler said. “Retail groceries is people. They don’t look at the outside and say, ‘That’s Consumers.’ They look at the inside and say, ‘They take care of me.’”

Fowler credits good employees with his success.

        

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