Last September, Mackinaw's IGA was left in ashes.

Now, almost a year to the day, a new grocery store will go up in its place.

The new IGA will open its doors September 2nd.

With no grocery store in town, locals have been feeling the pain of trying to run errands.

Mackinaw resident Gary Jacobs says, "Well, it's been very inconvenient. We're a small town with one grocery store and it's been very inconvenient not only for regular citizens but for our elderly as well have to drive out of town so I know the community is looking forward to this coming week for the store to be back open and get some more activity in the downtown area."

For almost a year, Mackinaw residents closest grocery store was a ten mile drive to the IGA in Minier.

But starting Wednesday, things will be back to normal for the locals.

Mackinaw Village President Craig Friend says, "The IGA was kind of like a gathering place, you go up there and you'd see your neighbors and your friends, people you went to school with kind of catch up. You won't have to drive down to Minier or any place else to get groceries. If you need something right away you can just run up and get it instead of trying to plan for what you're going to cook and so you can make sure you have it on hand."

Now residents will have a new place to catch up with errands and friends.

Mackinaw resident Tim Weir says, "I'm very excited I won't have to go anywhere else for my groceries and I think it's going to help all the businesses because when people would go for groceries they would pick up other staples that they needed and so it's going to help all of the businesses in the community."

The new IGA will offer some new attractions, including a fresh sit down deli.

IGA Owner Brett Zehr says, "We've got some new things coming, a bigger store, a parking lot which we're really glad about, DVD...we've got a red box DVD rental that you can rent right here and take back anywhere in the United States and it's pretty neat, we're going to have a Kodak kiosks so you can print off your own pictures...just stuff like that so we're very excited."

It's the little things in life...like a new grocery store that makes a community happy.