In Stafford County, residents of St. John have been without a grocery store for over two years ever since their local Dillons closed in 2016.

What used to be an out-of-town trip to go grocery shopping will now only take minutes for residents in Stafford County.

“The convenience of finally having a grocery store is so nice,” resident Virginia Russell said. “It’s beyond my expectation.”

Wednesday was the grand opening for White’s Foodliner.

Stafford Economic Development and White’s Foodliner came together to make this million dollar grocery store come to life.

“It’s very much a complete service grocery store,” Director of Stafford County Economics Carolyn Dunn said. “It has a deli, wide selection of produce and grocery items, a pharmacy, convenience store and gas pumps.”

Additionally, she said it brought 35 jobs to town and is a positive impact to the local economy.

“We predict if people shop here as we calculated, this will have a total impact of over $10 million a year in this community.”

Dunn said the county raised $1 million in grants, charitable contributions and borrowed some money to make this happen.