$202 Million Powerball Winners Buy Grocery Store
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Brian Lohse gives a tour of the new Brick Street Market in Bondurant, Iowa, a dream come true for the Powerball winner and his wife.
What would you do if your town of 4,000 residents had to drive half an hour to the nearest grocery store in another town, and you had a $202 million lottery windfall?
Easy - spend $4.5 million and buy your town their own supermarket. That's what two 2012 Iowa Powerball jackpot winners did, and it opens at the end of this month.
The store was built by Mary and Brian Lohse, who said the full-service grocery with a deli, bakery, restaurant, meat counter with butcher and a selection of Iowa wines has been a dream of theirs.
Brian and Mary at the Iowa Lottery headquarters after their Powerball jackpot win. Photo: abc News
In an interview they showed how the advice they were given after they won had kept them in good stead. Here's some extracts from that interview:
Surround yourself with good financial advisors and people that you trust.
One of the first things their attorney told them was to grow into the money..
Don't go out and spend it in a 'hurried frenzy.' Take your time.
Build your wealth before you start getting any of the fun and expensive toys.
Brian and Mary, when asked how their life had changed, said they said they had been doing a lot of shopping. They also had "a ton of meetings" for financial planning.
The Lohse couple (center) with their check at the Iowa Lottery headquarters.
It hasn't changed their life with their family. "We are everybody's favourite!" said Mary.
And she added, "Listen to the people at Iowa lottery, they know what they are doing."
Watch a video of the Lohse’s check presentation at the Iowa Lottery headquarters.
