By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
No worries. Golden Belt Beef's close on Monday and Tuesday, March 20-21, is just a temporary one. In the long run, the closure will benefit the company and customers as a new, bigger store is constructed at the current location of 1105 N. U.S. Highway 281 in St. John. Tessa Lickiss with Golden Belt Beef said the store will otherwise remain open during construction.
"What we have now, honestly, we call it the Little Red Shed," she said. "It's kind of a glorified garden shed. We're going to move that across the driveway on Sunday, then we'll be constructing an actual building that will sit there that is about three times the size of what we have now."
Golden Belt Beef operates two stores in St. John and Overland Park. Even with the bigger facility, Lickiss said the plan is to stick to beef-only products, but the store does offer virtually every cut of beef for sale to the public.
"We have no storage space at the store we're at now, so everything is stored here in our main office and freezers in the basement," she said. "By doing this, we'll be able to have a walk-in freezer to keep more storage on hand out there. We're processing 14 head a week right now between our store here and in Kansas City, so we've got a lot of excess we've got to store."
After Tuesday, the St. John location will resume regular business hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Crews plan to have the new store constructed by July 4.