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Sveine chronicles NU grocery store history

From trading posts to supermarkets

NEW ULM — Sharing century-old ads and photos with light-hearted banter, short story book author Terry Sveine of New Ulm chronicled the history of local grocery stores at the Junior Pioneers Annual Meeting at Turner Hall Friday night.

Sveine said Joseph LaFramboise owned the Little Rock Trading Post on the Minnesota River, northwest of New Ulm from 1834 to 1856.

Other early area businesses included the Turner warehouse in 1857 New Ulm that contained 95 houses, six stores, a bakery and butcher shop.

“Most early grocery stores sold more than groceries. They often had dry goods, shoes and boots and maybe a 3.2 bar next door,” Sveine said. “The early settlement of Golden Gate in northern Brown County sold groceries, medicine and farm implements, according to a newspaper ad. In 1898, you could buy a coconut at a New Ulm grocery store. Marti’s Cash Market even sold their own coffee brand.”

Other advertisements featured pure, kettle lard made by Mrs. F.A. Schnobrich, and pure river ice for sale and delivery.

Lower prices were offered to encourage cash transactions at many grocery stores about a century ago.

Neighborhood grocery stores included Nun Bros at 3rd North Street and State, Nippies at 9th North and Broadway, Vetter’s at 5th North and State, where Smiley’s Tavern is now; Domeier’s Store at 11th South and Minnesota Street, Beyer’s in Goosetown near the train depot, and Traurig’s at 4th South and Minnesota.

Sveine said a building now owned by Windings Inc. was originally built as an ice house with two very thick stone and cement walls separated by sawdust intended to preserve ice for up to a year.

“I asked my grandmother what was the biggest change she saw regarding groceries,” Sveine said. “She said plastic changed the family the most. With a family of 15, we used Tupperware and baggies to preserve food because there were so many of us, we couldn’t all eat at once.”

Sixty years ago, a large grocery store newspaper ad offered free pancakes served by Aunt Jemima at the Red Owl store.

“I think for many people in New Ulm, that was the first black person they ever saw in person,” Sveine said.

“Large grocery stores on the edges of town really changed the vitality of downtown,” Sveine said. “Randall’s grocery store on the north side of town and Swanson’s on the south side both had huge parking lots. These stores offered big food selections.”

Sveine said the big stores meant the end of many neighborhood grocery stores and the friendly, personal socializing often done with business owners.

“I talked to Leo Berg who owned Berg’s Market. He said employees were treated like family, asked over to share family meals,” Sveine said.

He talked to former Red Owl manager Stan Freking and his wife Betty. Freking said he often worked from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“Sometimes we ate ‘mystery meals’ consisting of canned food without labels. We also got the dented food cans we couldn’t sell in the store,” Betty Freking told Sveine.

“On holidays, it wasn’t uncommon for Stan to open the store for people to buy things like Cool Whip or cranberries that they wanted to serve at big meals,” Sveine said. “Nowadays, food shopping is something we have to do, rather than wanting to do it as we did years ago.”

At the Junior Pioneers meeting, Ruth McCrea Simpson and Carolyn Marti were elected to the board. Outgoing board members are Lori Otis and Kathy Berg.

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