Grocery shopping from years gone by: City report details history of mom-and-pop stores

Picture a time when Sioux Falls boasted a grocery store for every 326 residents.

Imagine going downtown to shop at the exclusive Shriver-Johnson Department Store and picking up your groceries while there.

Consider walking into a grocery store every day but not having row after row of frozen foods to wander through.

All those scenarios were true at various periods in Sioux Falls’ history, according to a survey of the city’s grocery stores from 1900 to 1950 recently presented to the Sioux Falls Board of Historic Preservation.

The information gathered from the survey identifies the still-standing buildings that once housed “mom-and-pop” grocery stores. Many of the different buildings have disappeared from the city landscape, but those that remain in existence could one day be placed on the city’s local endangered site list, said Diane deKoeyer, the city Planning & Building Services’ liaison with the Board of Historic Preservation.

“I don’t know if a lot of people understand the buildings they see originally were used as a grocery store,” deKoeyer said of sites such as Sunny’s Pizzeria at 26th Street and Walts Avenue. “Some of them probably were changed into homes. Ironically, a lot did turn into laundromats.”

That was the case for the Sunny’s Pizzeria building, which served the neighborhood between the University of Sioux Falls and Augustana University in that function for many years. Residents in similar neighborhoods started driving to larger chain stores rather than frequent the small store down the block. They may not have had a washer and dryer in their own homes for many years, however.

Shelly Sjovold was serving on the Board of Historic Preservation and helped spark the interest in such a survey. She began compiling a list of neighborhood grocery stores, but Richard Jensen’s list compiled for the survey contains more of the facilities attached or semi-attached to houses.

“He dug deep into who owned them and the part of the city,” she said. “I really appreciated that.”

It is important to categorize all areas of a community, Sjovold said.

“When the old Irving School (at 12th and Spring) got torn down, we sort of recognized the need to recognize some different types of buildings than houses or in the downtown,” she said. “Other cities have a listing for neighborhood grocery stores or facilities. It’s an interesting way to look at some of these historic buildings.”

Sjovold attended Augustana in the 1990s, and she was familiar with the laundromat at 26th and Walts but unaware of its earlier history. Neighborhoods had a crucial need for such grocery stores in a time of limited transportation, she said.

At one point, however, Sioux Falls had too many grocery stores in too small a space, the survey conducted by Jensen revealed. Of the 26 stores in existence in 1900, 18 were located downtown, between Sixth Street, the Big Sioux River, 11th Street and Dakota Avenue.

Unable to sustain such close competition, 15 of those stores closed or changed ownership in the next nine years. Two of those stores still stand: a standalone structure at the southwest corner of Duluth Avenue and 21st Street and a flat-roof addition to the rear of a home at 901 N. Spring Ave.

“Those are the two oldest grocery store structures in the city,” Jensen’s survey stated.

Nationally, self-service grocery stores — rather than having the owner or a clerk select groceries from a housewife’s list — gained popularity in the mid-1910s. Sioux Falls was not far behind, Jensen’s survey showed. A self-service store called the Basket Grocerteria opened at 115 S. Main Ave. in 1917. That also was the year Sioux Falls stores began to advertise themselves as “cash-and-carry” stores, indicating that credit no longer was extended.

Jensen’s survey includes information on the most popular food items being purchased each decade. That, too, paints a picture of life in Sioux Falls 70 to 120 years ago, deKoeyer said.

“You think about what it was like before cars were popular,” she said. “People would walk to the neighborhood grocery store. If they needed flour, well, one brand of flour was available. I thought it was interesting, just some of the price comparisons.”

In recent weeks, with the closing of a Hy-Vee grocery store at 10th Street and Kiwanis Avenue and the Andy’s Affiliated Foods on Cleveland Avenue, concern has arisen that some neighborhoods are becoming “food deserts.” The impact that has today could be similar to the tremors felt when some of the mom-and-pop stores closed, Sjovold said.

“They were the right size for the neighborhoods,” she said. “A lot of them were little family-owned businesses. They must have switched over to what the neighborhoods needed. Probably a business they could continue running and survive on.”

In future months, those who own these buildings will be contacted to gauge their interest in applying for the National Register of Historic Places, should they qualify.

“It might even be a multi-listing rather than a couple of individuals,” deKoeyer said. “It could be either state or national. If they ever wanted to make changes, they could qualify for a tax moratorium or Deadwood grant funds that could help the property owner.”

At least one former neighborhood store already is being renovated. The building at Ninth Street and Grange Avenue, most recently a duplex, now is owned by Alex Halbach. The plan is to convert it into a full-service restaurant. It was constructed to serve as a grocery store in the early 1900s.

“Getting materials has been just a bear, and timing materials,” he said. “We’re waiting on structural materials so we can start to restructure the inside. The building is in really rough shape. It’s pretty bad. So they’re rebuilding everything from the inside out, and I’m working at putting the building on the National Register of Historic Places.”

Starting next week, the plan is to remove trees for angled parking.

“It’s a slow chug. There’s just lots of moving pieces,” Halbach said.

The plan is to be open from about 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a focus on breakfast and lunch, he said.

The broader grocery report is “super amazing,” he added. “Heading from the ’20s into the ’30s was the highest concentration of grocery stores in Sioux Falls. It’s really amazing to me there was that concentration of grocery stores in the city … but that was before refrigeration was a thing, so they were bringing in small quantities of food on a regular basis. That was just the way of life.”

He also has looked deeper into the history of his own building with help from Jensen.

“It was predominantly women-run. It was the wives who were running that store specifically for much of its history,” Halbach said. “It sat vacant for a while and was turned into a duplex in the ’60s and remained that way until I bought it in 2021. New life going back in, I have heard nothing but positive comments. Spend an hour up there with your laptop, and people stop by and say: ‘When will it be open? We’re excited about this.’ I do think it will be well-received, but it’s a lot of work.”

Halbach said he wishes there were more remaining former groceries around because they served to tie neighborhoods together.

“They really gathered around those stores, and I think what I’m trying to do will do the same thing,” he said. “It will unite the neighborhood and really feel like their spot.”

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