Dec. 20, 2021

In 2006 or so, when a manager suggested Franklin Food Market open for a couple of hours on Christmas Day, owner Ted Haggar was opposed. Adamantly.

But Laurie VanNoort told him at least three of the grocery store’s employees had nowhere else to go that day and wanted to work. She herself would come in. Haggar finally agreed.

He didn’t expect it to be a success. At least one employee and the owner of another family-owned grocery store in Sioux Falls had shared their predictions that it would be a big, fat failure.

It wasn’t.

“The first year we opened up with four of us,” VanNoort recalled. “(Ted) left to go to his family for breakfast. He wasn’t gone 30 or 45 minutes when I called him and said, you need to come back. People are backed up around the store.”

“I ended up bringing my family with me,” Haggar said.

Since then, being open for part of Christmas Day has become a Franklin Food Market tradition. This year, the store at 711 N. Cliff Ave. will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Everyone who works volunteered to come in, adding their names to a sign-up sheet that went up in late October.

One familiar face will be absent, however. Art Jackson, who served as the unofficial store greeter for 18 years and was always the first person to sign up to work on Christmas, died Nov. 7, less than three weeks before his 81st birthday. He had shown up for his usual shift at Franklin Food Market the day before his death.

The sprite of a man — he stood only about 5 feet tall — said the same thing to everyone, Haggar said: “How are youuuuu?”

People came into the store on Christmas Day just to see the man she called “my little buddy,” VanNoort said. When Franklin Food Market announced his death on its Facebook page, more than 700 condolences and memories were shared in response.

Jackson had worked as a welder at Egger Steel for almost 40 years before he started working in carryout at Franklin, which still provides that customer service. His only son and grandchildren lived in Germany, and Jackson looked forward to seeing other faces on Christmas Day. Those he helped felt the same.

“You were one of a kind,” a Facebook poster wrote. Said another, “I will miss talking with him every time I came in.” Added a third, “He was a true vision of kindness.”

Adding to the grief of Haggar, VanNoort and family members like Josh Haggar, also a manager at Franklin, was adjusting to the loss of another manager. Bob Enstad died Jan. 30; he had worked there 47 years.

The tradition of being open on Christmas Day will continue without those two familiar faces, however. VanNoort shared the reasoning behind this decision in a Facebook post last week that drew universal support. “Bless you greatly for this kind gesture to those who need a place on Christmas,” one woman wrote.

Remember, employees volunteer to work that day. In fact, Haggar has only one rule: If not enough people want to work, the store won’t open on Christmas.

Before that first Christmas, Haggar promised to be generous.

“I don’t know how smart it was, but I said I’ll double-pay everybody,” he said.

He has heard the criticism of the store’s decision.

“One of the funny things, this guy stood up front and looked at the checker (and said) ‘I imagine this greedy bastard’s making you work today’ or something like that, and I’m like what are you doing here then, why are you there?” Haggar said, chuckling. “We just don’t hear any of that anymore.”

In fact, from the first Christmas, Franklin Food Market has averaged two and a half days’ worth of sales in the six hours it is open. Sure, people come in to buy small items like whipped cream, whipped topping, the fried onions that go on top of green bean casserole. They are just as likely to spend several hundred dollars buying the entire meal, including prime rib and hams.

That first Christmas, the customers included a man who had moved recently and had forgotten his entire family was coming for the holiday meal. He spent $200 buying everything he needed. Last year, a woman drove down from Brookings, caught unaware that her local store would close early.

Haggar’s first instinct against opening on Christmas Day stemmed from personal sadness. His mother had died on a Christmas. To a store that prides itself on being family-owned and treating its employees like family, that made it different. Franklin Food Market — it was named for the now-vanished Franklin Elementary that stood across the street — marks its 73rd year on Jan. 6, 2022, and includes the fifth generation of Haggars.

Haggar since has come to realize that Christmas means different things to different people. To some, it’s just Dec. 25. Sioux Falls has diversified, Haggar knows, and that means people of different faiths have different traditions.

“The biggest misconception is that everybody has something to do on that day, and they don’t,” he said.

Families gather on different days, VanNoort said, working around a variety of work schedules and demands. And sometimes, they just want to come in and see a friendly face.

“Nobody gets mad on Christmas,” despite the crowds that make parking tricky and the lines waiting to check out long, VanNoort said.

The first year, a smorgasboard of food was set out for employees. Now, Haggar and VanNoort know to offer something more simple, like cheese and crackers that can be consumed on the go.

“We’ve refined things,” VanNoort said.