Carlson’s Country Store, a family-owned business in Turtlepoint, is turning 99 years old in just a few short days.
“Feb. 20 is the day my father purchased the store in 1920,” said Jim Carlson, one of eight children of the late George L. Carlson.
It was 99 years ago that George Carlson purchased the general store from the previous owner. Today, the store remains in the Carlson family as a corporation, G.L. Carlson Inc. The store can be found at 1787 Champlin Hill Road.
It currently includes the general store and the Turtlepoint Post Office, as well as a feed store housed in a former separate business building that was joined to the store.
Today, Jim Carlson and his brother’s wife, Ginny Carlson, are the main family members still active in the business. All of George Carlson’s children had separate careers during their lives, but each had worked in the store and other parts of the business over the years.
George Carlson had also had a dairy business and a lumber mill, said Jim Carlson.
“Now phased out of the dairy business, we still have the store and manage timber resources,” Jim Carlson said. They have not operated a sawmill since the late 1970s.
The store has remained in the same spot for all 99 years, except for a few weeks during the flood of 1942, when it was moved to the Grange Hall.
“The flood of ’42 flooded out part of the store,” Carlson explained. “After that, the store building was raised and some interior changes made.”
The Carlson family has maintained a balance between maintaining the old-fashioned charm of the quaint country store while still finding ways to stay relevant as shopping habits changed over the decades.
Some changes were slight, some larger.
For instance, at one time it offered charge accounts, a practice that died out decades ago. In the 1950s, the Post Office was enlarged and the dry goods section changed somewhat.
In the late 1950s, the family started to expand the meat offerings and installed a couple of refrigeration units. The 1970s brought store carts and a checkout to Carlson’s.
“During all these times, people’s buying habits changed,” Carlson said of the changes.
About 1975, the family decided, “We should probably emphasize meats,” he said.
They put a meat counter in the back of the store, followed by more expansions in the ’80s and ’90s.
A good meat selection has helped to keep customers coming into the store.
At most stores, Carlson explained, meat accounts for maybe 30 percent of food sales. At Carlson’s, meat is between 60 and 70 percent of food sales.
“More than half our sales are meat. That’s not so typical in a typical supermarket today,” he said.
Looking for “little niches in the market” has helped keep the store relevant nearly a century after George Carlson took ownership of the store.
“We made those little adjustments over time,” he said.
Changes have also come to the farming industry, which has prompted similar adjustments to the feed store portion of the business.
Farming has become a major industry, with many smaller farms going out of business while big, corporate operations stay open. The store changed from selling 100-pound bags to selling 50-pound bags, catering more to people who have just a few animals such as chickens or horses.
Despite the feed changes, “That business is still pretty stable for us,” Carlson said.
They continue to make updates to the store, according to Carlson, who talked about their current projects.
“We’re just making some interior renovations,” he said, noting they just recently added more refrigeration and are changing display cases.
No special happenings are planned for the 99th anniversary, except to maybe offer more 99 cent items than usual and note the anniversary in the store’s ad.
“We’re really looking forward to doing something for the 100th anniversary,” Carlson noted. Plans for what they will do are still in the works. “We’re gradually making note of some things to display relative to the history of the store,” he said.
They are also keeping track of historical photographs for display in 2020.
