'Little store' closing shop after 21 years

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By JEAN ORTIZ / Lincoln Journal Star

The Minute Mart gave Dick Howat 21 good years.

Inside the “little store,” the pickings among the candy bars and gum are slimmer than usual.

Bare spaces proliferate in the back of the shop in areas normally reserved for dog food or room deodorizer.

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For the last 21 years, Dick and Violet Howat have been the owners of the U-Stop at 110 W. Fletcher in the Highlands which will be closing on July 5th because their lease was not renewed. "Its tough," said Dick, "You develop a relationship with your customers after 22 years." (Heidi Hoffman)

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Store owners closing after 21 years

Dick and Violet Howat are preparing to step away from operations of the only convenience store and gas station in the Highlands. Their last day of bus...

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About three weeks ago, Dick and Violet Howat wrote their news on a dry erase board posted over the cooler of Red Bull. Saturday July 5. Last Day of Business.

The lease on the building is up, and the Howats don’t have an option to renew, so they’ll close for good Saturday.

The equipment — including shelving and coolers — will be auctioned Tuesday.

Dick Howat has run the only gas station and convenience store in the Highlands for 21 years. His wife, Violet, has helped for nearly 16.

He doesn’t bring up the approaching closing much with customers. He doesn’t want to dwell on it, or cause problems for the property’s owners who, he said, have a right to do what they want with the store.

It’s sad, but that’s life, Violet Howat said.

They’ll miss the customers.

They’ll miss the vendors.

“I’ve had a lot of good people come in here,” Dick Howat said.

The Howats stocked bread, eggs, milk, canned veggies — the kind of things area residents wanted without a grocery store nearby.

“We try to be a friendly store,” he said.

David Korber, 20, lives nearby and drops by the little store nearly every day. He said he was probably 3 the first time he visited.

“They’ve always been nice,” he said.

Other customers express similar sentiments — most pointing out what the store has meant to the neighborhood.

The property owners, listed on the Lancaster County Assessor’s Office Web site as G & C Investments, intend to operate the shop as a full-fledged U-Stop, Dick Howat said.

Omaha attorney Robert Zuber, registered agent of the limited liability corporation, said he was unaware of the property or impending changes.

The U-Stop name has been on the sign outside Howat’s shop for several years because he had an agreement to buy his gas from Whitehead Oil, which operates U-Stops around Lincoln, he said.

Whitehead Oil President Mark Whitehead did not return a message seeking comment.

Life has changed a lot in 21 years, said Dick Howat, who opened the store in June 1987, following his family’s lead into the convenience store business.

Back then, he said, the Highlands was in bankruptcy. The city eventually annexed it, and the area rebounded, he said.

He didn’t always know the names, but he knew the faces of the people who returned time and again.

The Howats will take those memories with them as business winds down and they move onto retirement and other things.

“They’re all real good to us,” Violet Howat said.

Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com.