Bailey’s General Store, Lee County’s longest-running business, opened in 1899, but has been closed since Sept. 28, when Hurricane Ian’s devastating storm surge breached the store’s walls, filling it with up to 10 feet of salt water.  

General manager Richard Johnson has been working with his team to assess the damage and formulate a plan to reopen. 

“We’ve got some work to do,” Johnson said. “But we’re going to recover, restore and reopen. The three ‘R’s. We’ve been working closely with the Jerry’s team. We’ve always worked well together.”  

Jerry’s Store, also off Periwinkle Way, the island’s most well-traveled road, reopened Oct. 15 and had a ceremonial reopening ribbon cutting Oct. 19.  

“Over the years, our relationship has grown,” Jerry’s store manager Rick Winningham said. “Both of us are in the business of keeping people grocery shopping on Sanibel.”  

Even though Bailey’s needs a significant amount of work, the store, along with Jerry’s, combined to donate $20,000 to Hurricane Ian recovery efforts. The check was written by UNFI, a wholesale food distributor employed by both grocery stores.  

“We’re all about community,” Johnson said. “Jerry’s and Bailey’s… it’s not about us.”  

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson and his team planned to hold court in the Bailey’s grocery store parking lot at 2477 Periwinkle Way. The goals of the gathering were to provide residents with information, meet with other washed out business owners and share with each other the immense tasks that lie ahead of them. 

John Lai, the president of the Sanibel Captiva Chamber of Commerce, said the short-term prospects would be challenging, but the long-term outcome should be fine.  

“In reality, it’s probably at the very quickest, it’s going to be three to six months before we start seeing restaurants and stores coming back online,” Lai said of most Periwinkle Way businesses. He said this will provide a massive morale boost just like Jerry’s store reopening did.  

“We’re very encouraged by driving down Periwinkle and seeing the fact there are so many structures still intact,” Lai said. “It’s really figuring out how much water they took in and then what it’s going to take to rebuild from there.”