Spencer Gross Motors location closes its doors

Last week Tuesday marked the end of the Spencer Gross Motors location, as remaining inventory was moved to Neillsville. In a Facebook post March 7, Gross Motors announced that the sales department would be moving temporarily to 608 E. Division St., Neillsville (old gas station location) and the service department would be moving to 124 W. Seventh St., Neillsville, while the company awaited construction of a new facility to be located at 508 E. Division St., Neillsville.

“The new facility will be a dual facility that will house our Ford dealership as well as our existing Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership that is in Neillsville. This will be a much bigger and more modern facility for us to help take better care of our customers and their automotive needs,” the Facebook post stated.

“Although we did not want to make this move, we ended up facing the same thing that many small businesses today are facing where we just didn’t have the economies of scale with this small organization to be profitable. Also, with all of today’s requirements and demands from the manufacturers, we were facing a lot of additional upcoming expense that would only make things more difficult yet to operate on a small scale. Finally, and probably most importantly, with the size and scope of the dealership we felt like we weren’t offering the quality of service and timeliness that we strive to achieve for our customers.

“Both the Ford store and the Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store that are merging together are facing some retirements along with a couple unforeseen hardship absences for some other employees. So, in order to help our employees and provide a good level of service and sales, we opted to start operating together in Neillsville now and get prepared for the new facility to open,” the post continued.

“We have seen the writing on the wall and knew this was the right ‘business’ decision for a long time. However, the emotions and strong desire to not leave the Spencer community is what has caused us to turn a blind eye to the ‘business’ side of things and keep trying to operate like we have over the years. We have formed a lot of friendships and had some great times in Spencer. We had a lot of ups and downs over the past seven years. The fire was obviously a difficult period. However, losing one of our beloved employees and well-known Spencer locals, Dale Mroz, last year was by far the hardest for everyone. But, we had a lot of great times, too, with Spencerama days and all the great burgers from across the street at Nutz Deep. We always tried to contribute and help the Spencer community whenever asked for a wide range of functions.”

To continue to serve the Spencer community, Gross Motors is offering free pick-up and delivery to the Neillsville service department for any Ford customers that live or work in Spencer, Loyal, Greenwood, Chili and the surrounding area.

“We plan on offering this service for at least the next two years and may extend it past that even longer once we know how its working,” the post stated.

The post also stated that the company plans to support the Spencer community by continuing to take part in fundraisers, donations and scholarships it’s been involved with over the years.

Spencer Gross Motors employees pose for a photo during a meal together. The company’s Spencer operations have been moved to Neillsville.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO