Nov. 3, 2022

The west-central neighborhood left without a grocery store nearby earlier this year soon will see some of that void filled.

Fair Market, a reduced-price grocery store, has founded a location at 523 N. Kiwanis Ave. and plans to open a location there in the next month.

The neighborhood lost access to a nearby grocery when Hy-Vee closed at 10th Street and Kiwanis at the beginning of the year. It’s becoming a fulfillment center for the grocer’s bakery and pharmacy.

“We’ve had a lot of customers come from there, and they’ve talked about the hurdles they’d had post-Hy-Vee, so there are a lot of access issues in that part of town,” said Kristin Johnson, who started Fair Market in 2021 and has a location at 4510 E. 10th St.

“I’m excited for the neighborhood. Sioux Falls can only win from this.”

Fair Market was acquired earlier this year by Empower Sioux Falls with a goal of bringing satellite locations into underserved neighborhoods.

“We’ve been looking for space in Pettigrew Heights or along Kiwanis Avenue for three or four months,” said Rich Merkouris, chairman of the Empower board of directors.

“It’s hard to find a space that’s affordable with a short-term lease to try this. We were able to find a spot and signed a lease for two years to give it a good trial in the area. We’ve got to do some general cleanup, but it’s a very simple, open space. We’re going to clean it up and paint a little bit and put shelves up, and the goal is to get accessible and operational. We’re not focused on fancy at the moment.”

The model will be slightly different from Fair Market’s original store, which buys salvage grocery items and sells them at a deep discount.

The satellite location will carry about 60 staple items: hamburger, milk, rice, beans, tortillas and eggs, for instance, along with some salvage items.

“That takes care of 70 percent of your meals, just a lot of those really approachable ingredients that fit lots of ethnicities and cuisine things we do at home,” Johnson said. “I think produce is going to be the biggest hurdle because it has to come from such a distance, and volume is a problem. I do have connections, and we’re working on it.”

Since relocating to East 10th Street earlier this year, “we’re really busy,” she added. “Our volume has doubled since we moved, and it had tripled from when we first opened before we moved. That’s why we had to relocate. We’re selling more than I ever thought would be possible in a short amount of time. Ten years down the road, maybe, but not 18 months.”

The economy is driving some of the business, she said, along with supply chain shortages at some big-box retailers.

“There’s just a lot of people I think were falling between the cracks before the economy fell apart, and they have an option. EBT and Feeding South Dakota only get you so far, so we’re helping fill the gaps.”

Fair Market locations also will begin accepting EBT benefits yet this year, though the date hasn’t been set yet.

And while the west-central location prepares to open, Empower continues to look at more sites.

“We’re looking also at the exact same time at the Laura B. Anderson neighborhood, the North Cliff area, so if we find a space at the moment, we’d open two satellites if we could to try this trial,” Merkouris said. “And if that goes well, we’d expand to more.”

Organization buys reduced-price grocery store with plans to expand locations