But he says the decision to build a store twice the size of the 12-year-old Brewer’s Country Mart was not an easy one.

“It was a tough decision,” said Nolting, one of the owners of the store. “We’d been trying to expand in our present location for a couple of years but we just couldn’t get the layout right, so we decided to start from scratch.”

The new store covers about 58,000 square feet, Nolting said.

“Between the land, building, equipment and inventory, it’s about a seven- to eight-million-dollar project,” he said.

The new store will include an electronic banking area, floral shop, sit-down area for an expanded deli and fresh seafood, Nolting said.

“And we’ll have a kitchen center with pots and pans, a pharmacy with drive-through window, a nutrition center store-within-a-store and all the other departments, of course, greatly expanded,” he added.

Owners of the store are Nolting, his son, Chad Nolting, his son-in-law, Clay Nairn, and his cousin, Quenten Brewer.

The opening of Kansas Speedway, slated for April 2001, two miles away influenced the decision to build, Nolting said.

“We’re pretty excited about the NASCAR thing,” said Nolting, an avid racing fan himself. “It’s going to make a big difference.”

This plays into the potential for growth that the owners considered when deciding to build.

“You’ve got to keep a step ahead,” Nolting said.

Just five miles south, on Kansas Highway 7 at Johnson Drive, is a 1-year-old Price Chopper.

Jeff Cuttell, store director, said that business opened in February 1999 as a Roche’s Price Chopper.

On Jan. 3, its ownership and management changed, and now the store is a Cosentino’s Price Chopper.

Cuttell said he thinks Brewers’ Price Chopper is far enough away that it won’t affect his business much. “I think there’s enough business for everybody,” Cuttell said.

“We’re a little smaller,” Cuttell said, “But business is picking up. I think we’re just a couple of years earlier than the housing out here.”

As far as finding a use for the current Brewers’ Country Mart, which is a block south of the new Brewers’ Price Chopper, Nolting said there are no immediate plans.

“We have a leasing company trying to find a tenant,” Nolting said. “But as of this time we have nobody on the dotted line.”