For nearly half a century, Maib Short Stop Grocery has been a family-owned mainstay of downtown Geary.
The store has enjoyed stability in ownership and management, but last week the longtime store manager moved across the street for a job at Geary City Hall and trained a new manager to lead the store.
On April 6, Paula Reding defeated incumbent Geary City Clerk-Treasurer Amy Wood by just five votes, 69 to 64. On April 19, she began her new position.
Reding had been managing Maib since 2008, she said, when store owner Larry Maib died and his son and daughter took over. She ran for city office to do “something different,” she said.
But when she won the election, that gave her just a week to train a new store manager. She thought of Natalie Wood.
“The owner asked me, was there anybody I knew that could fill in real quick,” Reding told The Geary Star. “I said, ‘Well, we have a week to train her, and I think I can train (Wood) in a week. She’s been here before.”
Natalie Wood said this will be her third time working at Maib and that she’s done so for about four years total.
She said being a manager is more challenging than she even realized. “You don’t appreciate someone else’s job until you try to fill their shoes,” Wood said. “It’s more than I expected.”
Fortunately, Reding is right down the street or “just a text away.”
“So if she has a question,” Reding said, “just text me and I’ll come by on lunch or after work.”
“Or she’ll stop by before work,” Natalie Wood laughed, “and I’m like, ‘Paula, I can’t get the accounts to balance, will you please check?’”
Natalie Wood said she doesn’t plan to change a thing about Maib’s friendly customer service. The store offers pizza and chicken from Hunt Brothers, along with beer, cigarettes, snacks and other convenience items. “We sell a lot of pizzas,” Wood said.
On Facebook, the store said it was “sad” to see Reding go but wishes her “all the best at her new job.”
“Congratulations!!!” they wrote. “You will be greatly missed.
“Thank you Natalie, for stepping up and taking on your new position as manager. We appreciate you very much and know you’ll continue the tradition of friendly customer service and convenience here at Maib Short Stop Grocery.”
Maib is located at 200 N. Broadway in Geary.