As first reported by the North Dakota Monitor, a new pilot program aims to save North Dakota’s struggling rural grocery stores through a $12.6 million Bush Foundation grant. The state has lost nearly 50 small-town groceries since 2014, creating food deserts where residents must drive over 10 miles to shop.
The North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives will create a food hub near Minot to help six to eight interested stores band together for better wholesale prices. Currently, many rural stores pay more wholesale than big chains charge customers. The hub will also keep more North Dakota-grown crops in-state instead of shipping them out for processing and buying them back at higher prices.
An employee at Z’s Fresh Market in Ellendale says they deal with this very issue, like many other small stores: high wholesale costs that increase prices for consumers. “People don’t look at quality or where [products] come from, they look at price, and if somewhere has a better price, they’re gonna go get it there.” The employee says that visitors and transplants working with Applied Digital “don’t care; they’ll come in, pay whatever they’re gonna pay, but little Sally Jane from down the street can’t come in and afford to buy eggs.”
This program could help in other areas besides inventory costs. Luke Horneck’s family owns and operates McVille Market. The family, who recently came into ownership of the store, has to deal with old equipment, like coolers and freezers, creating other expenses besides inventory. “We don’t have a proper heating system right now, so in the wintertime, it stays really, really cold inside the store,” Horneck said. “Since we just opened not that long ago, we don’t have the money yet to do anything about it.” He says this food hub model would “help a lot” with mitigating expenses.
The program will take several years to develop, but organizers hope stores can start collaborating within a year to reduce costs and provide more local food options for rural communities.
Comments