Navigation

Tag: This Old Store

Rural groceries were once centers of small-town life

by Patty Williamson, PhD

They once dotted the countryside and villages of northern Door County: the little grocery stores that met so many needs. In the days when many families had no automobile – or women did not drive – homemakers depended on a store being within walking distance. They needed a shop where they could send a child for an item that was needed immediately, such as an ingredient for a cake that was already in process or extra pork chops when unexpected company arrived.

Many of the little stores started as butcher shops, so they generally had some method of refrigeration – even if it was just ice cut from the lake or bay and stored in sawdust – when few homes did. Store owners who did not butcher their own meat had it delivered regularly, and fresh meat was especially valued when the home-canned or salted supply ran out. Flour and sugar were sold by the pound out of barrels, and vinegar also came in a barrel with a pump for dispensing the desired amount.

Store shelves contained rows and rows of canned goods and staples such as crackers and cereal, and there was often a box of hard candy on the counter for children and cheese samples for adults. There were no shopping carts or baskets. Customers either handed their list to the grocer or recited the needed items, which were retrieved and boxed up. There were no paper bags and certainly no plastic ones.

Many little grocery stores also carried a multitude of nonfood items such as clothing, shoes, housewares, lanterns, chicken feed and – if they were near a harbor or campground – the many supplies that boaters and campers needed.

The stores served as community centers as well: repositories of news and places to find camaraderie. Most were heated by pot-belly stoves, which made them a convenient place for men to gather – usually with a spittoon nearby. For many farmers’ wives, the “butter and egg money” they earned each week was their only personal income, and it provided their chance to visit with other women while their orders were being filled. It may have been their only nonfamily social contact in weeks.

Travel from Northern Door to Sturgeon Bay during the early 1900s was not an everyday occurrence. Unless it was a necessity – acquiring a part for broken-down machinery at harvest time, for instance – shopping near home was much easier. Many of the little stores had a gas pump out front, which was a convenience for locals and tourists alike, but the pumps worked by gravity and weren’t dependable in hot weather.

People felt a connection to “their” store. Even if a small town had two or three, families usually shopped exclusively at one of them. Many of the grocers were available in emergencies, day or night, because it was common for their families to live behind or over the shops.

Those little old stores were blessings to their communities for so long. Often they had one of the first telephones in town, and it was not unusual to find a shelf or two of books in back – a sort of early lending library. And in the days when a family’s income depended mainly on a successful harvest, most grocers understood the need to buy food “on credit.”

So what happened to these old stores? They didn’t all disappear at once. Many were gone by the middle of the 20th century, but some hung on until the early 1990s, and a few even remain open today. In most cases, there were no longer family members who were willing to put in the long hours. Ten to 13 hours a day, Monday through Saturday, was not unusual, and some village stores opened on Sunday mornings for farm families whose only trip to town was for church services.

As roads improved and cars became more common, the lure of lower prices and a greater variety of merchandise in Sturgeon Bay stores drew people out of their neighborhoods. What was lost? The convenience of a store just down the road and a valuable part of the community.

What replaced those little stores? The Piggly Wiggly in Sister Bay, built in 1983; and Main Street Market in Egg Harbor, built in 1987. Gas stations such as Baileys 57 in Baileys Harbor and other BP stations near Carlsville and Fish Creek that have increased their grocery offerings far beyond the basic bread and milk. The morning coffee klatch at Baileys 57 is, in some ways, a politically correct version of the old Reinhard-Nippert Store’s “BS group” – a nickname so commonly used that there was even a sign directing travelers to the Ephraim Airport and the BS Store.

And then there are the historical little groceries that never left: the Fish Creek Market, established in 1895; the Pioneer Store in Ellison Bay, established in 1900; and Bley’s Grocery Store in Jacksonport, established in 1956.

  • This Old Store: Anderson’s in Ephraim

    Of all the little grocery stores on which northern Door County families have depended, Anderson’s in Ephraim is distinctive: Not only did the Anderson family operate it for a century, but then the Ephraim Historical Foundation restored it as a museum. Since the 1960s, it has served as a memorial to honor all the other […]

  • This Old Store: Juddville’s Lundberg and Klingbile Stores

    Before moving his business to Fish Creek, Alex (C.A.) Lundberg owned a store attached to his two-story home in Juddville, where Juddville Road (really just a dirt path then) met the shore of Green Bay. The Aug. 12, 1880, edition of a local newspaper reported that “Lundberg and another party from Menekaune intend establishing a […]

  • This Old Store: The ‘BS Store’ on County F

    William and Wilhelmina Reinhard built Reinhard’s Store in 1916 on the southeast corner of Highway F and Maple Grove Road. They lived on the farm across the road, where Camp David – the home of today’s Fishstock concerts – is now located. Their grandchildren, Delores Prust Spittlemeister, Helen Prust Mueller and her twin brother, Herbert, were […]

  • This Old Store: Krist’s Red Owl

    In 1960, when Keith Krist’s parents, Fred and Dorothy, bought a 30-year-old grocery store in Sister Bay that had previously been owned by the Manns and Wilkes, the Krists were carrying on a family tradition of at least five generations, stretching back to Austria and southern Germany.  Keith’s grandfather, Tony Krist, had grocery stores in […]

  • This Old Store: Sohn’s in Ephraim

    Arnold and Ida Sohns had been married for seven years in 1917 when they arrived in Ephraim from Maple Grove and bought a very small, dark shed that had been the Keys blacksmith shop. Arnold established his butcher shop in a space so small that there was room inside for only three or four people […]

  • This Old Store: Trodahl’s/Witalison’s Market

    A long-ago store in Egg Harbor It’s one of those little stores that went on for decades. The grocery stores in Egg Harbor that long-timers seem to remember best were Trodahl’s and Witalison’s – and actually, they were the same store. In addition, there were two owners before Marvin and Agnes Trodahl, two between the […]

  • THIS OLD STORE: Bley’s Grocery in Jacksonport

    Ralph Herbst and his dad, Elmer, built the first grocery store in Jacksonport in 1949. Ralph left a few years later to join the Navy and ended up making a career of it.  Wayne Bley was six when his parents, Wallace and Laverne, bought the store in 1956 and changed the name to Bley’s Grocery, […]

  • This Old Store: The Lundberg Store

    In 1902, Alex and Alice Lundberg closed their Juddville store and built a general store in Fish Creek. They also built a large home at the corner of Cottage Row and Maple Street that’s now part of the White Gull Inn property. The turn of that century – when tourism was beginning and new homes were […]

  • This Old Store: Happy Herman’s Market in Sister Bay

    After weeks of scrubbing, painting and stocking shelves, Herman and Keta Steebs opened Happy Herman’s Market the week before Christmas in 1956. John Kopitzke ran a half-page ad in the Door Reminder and, as Keta said, “inadvertently became our first customer by buying a nickel candy bar.” Keta’s brother-in-law, Wesley Landstrom, made a huge, plywood […]