Iowa Lottery

Hometown Retailer For More Than 50 Years Knows His Customers Well

Francis "Chub" Montgomery will tell you he knows just about everyone who walks through the door to his grocery/convenience store.

Francis "Chub" Montgomery, owner of Cook's Grocery in Nevada.

He's the owner of Cook's Grocery, 1116 Lincolnway in Nevada, and he has been since 1965. The store has stood in the same location since 1956.

"Being here 50 years does have its advantages. When we have class reunions and so forth, you know most of our businesses and stuff in town are either closed up or no longer the original owners. So they stop in 'cause we're still here, kind of the rock of the community," Montgomery said.

He's sold Iowa Lottery products since the lottery's inception in 1985 and has always tried to do his best to make his store a destination for his lottery customers.

"When we have a big [jackpot]- when it gets like $200 million - a lot of the higher volume stores you have to actually wait. We are down here so our pace is smoother. They come in here and they don't have to wait as long. We can take care of that too. We manage to fill in the overflow. That helps," he said.

Montgomery hopes his flair for decorating has helped sales too. He got the idea several years ago to hang samples of new scratch tickets from the ceiling so people could see them better. Even though he now has a new in-counter dispenser that displays the tickets well, he keeps hanging the tickets for an attention-grabber.

Montgomery talks a lot about supporting the community he's lived in all his life. He grew up two blocks from the store and worked there part time while in high school before he bought it when he was 21.

Montgomery said, "I'm one of these fortunate ones who's been able to stay within the community, been able to be with my family and so you're lucky if you can stay there where you're known. I can't imagine people wanting to pack up and move south to retire and get away from their hometown."