Self-serve grocery store in rural Minnesota town is a big hit

Owners Alex and Caileen Ostenson visit with a customer at their Main Street Market in Evansville, Minn. Customers of the self-serve establishment write suggestions on the chalk board for items they'd like to see on the shelves. (NPR photo)

Rural grocery stores continue to become scarcer, leaving many small-town residents without a nearby source of fresh, reasonably priced foods. Some towns have responded by opening cooperative groceries. Another innovative solution? The self-serve grocery store in Evansville, Minn., a community of about 600 two hours northwest of Minneapolis.

It's the brainchild of Alex and Caileen Ostenson, who moved from the Twin Cities five years ago to be
closer to family. The local grocery store closed just before they got to town, so locals had to go 20 miles away to get to the nearest supermarket, Dan Gunderson reports for NPR.

In 2020 the couple got some local donations and remodeled a vacant downtown storefront into the self-serve Main Street Market. "They believed the concept would save on staff costs, provide round the clock access, and convince the community to invest in a local grocery store," Gunderson reports.

Evansville, in Douglas County
(Wikipedia map)

It works like this: The store is manned three days a week, and anyone in town can shop there, but locals can also buy a $75 annual membership (or a shorter-term one) that allows them to access the store at any time. "Those members can use a phone app to open the door, scan grocery items and pay. There's also a key fob option and a scanner on a counter for those who aren't comfortable using their phone," Gunderson reports. "The technology logs everyone who comes to the store and tracks their purchases. The store also has security cameras, and theft has not been an issue, said Alex." The Ostensons hoped to sign up 50 members in the first year but got more than that in the first week.

The couple isn't taking a salary, but last year "Alex was awarded a fellowship through the West Central Initiative Foundation, and the accompanying $30,000 annual stipend allowed him to quit his full-time job to focus on developing and expanding the self-serve grocery model," Gunderson reports. "Alex has a vision for this concept. By next year he intends to be ready to open a second store in a nearby town, and he wants to create a way to share what he's learned, convincing others this idea can help a small town save or replace the local grocery store. . . . In rural communities, the self-serve concept could mean the difference between buying local groceries or driving miles to a regional center."