BISMARCK, N.D. — Once a week, in the name of community service, Laurie Stenson drives to a town about 40 miles away to buy bread. She travels about 35 miles to another town to pick up other groceries. Some weeks, she meets the ice cream distributor on a nearby highway.
Stenson manages Drucker's General Store, a community-owned grocery in Esmond, N.D., that opened in mid-November.
"I don't know anything about a grocery store," she said with a laugh. "But the community has been very good at supporting you when you need it, giving a helping hand."
Community groceries are popping up in small towns across North Dakota in an effort to ensure that staples such as bread, eggs and milk are conveniently available to locals. Privately run groceries are falling by the wayside as rural towns lose population and as residents seek lower prices in bigger cities.
Tom Woodmansee, president of the North Dakota Grocers Association, said that in his 19 years on the job, the number of groceries in the state has fallen from around 500 to about 350. "People in our rural communities don't understand that if they don't support their local merchants . . . they're going to be gone; and once they're gone they say, 'Oh, what are we going to do now?' " Woodmansee said.
The southeastern North Dakota town of Forbes faced that dilemma 25 years ago. A volunteer board sought out grant money, set up a nonprofit organization, hired a manager and started The People's Store. Volunteers unload trucks and even help make some of the food sold in the store, said Ted Wolff, a farmer who heads the volunteer board.