“We knew how vital a grocery store was to the community, because it was one of the reasons why we originally moved to Powers Lake,” shared Connie Olson. When they heard the town’s grocery store was for sale and may close, Connie and her husband, Dustin, stepped up to keep it in the community. Seven years after relocating their family from Wyoming, the Olsons are the owners of Prairie Pride Foods in Powers Lake.
The Olsons originally planned to open a sweets shop and barbecue food cart—two things they are passionate about—when they realized they could incorporate those into the grocery store. After a lot of collaboration with Randy Streifel with Liberty State Bank of Powers Lake, the pieces started coming together.
Olson continued, “Randy bent over backward. He really worked hard to find the best deal and did the footwork for us … he understood the importance of us having a grocery store in town.”
Streifel worked with BND Business Banker Jackie Duke to access BND’s Flex PACE Loan, a program that has been utilized for other projects in the community. Streifel explained, “The best parts of it were rates, terms and flexibility. You can buy a loan down to 1% for the city, and the BND loan helps facilitate the buydown.”
To support their local economy, Powers Lake has a one cent sales tax that is put in a fund to help new business ventures, interest buydowns and more. Members of the community and local officials know how critical it is to have essential services like a grocery store.
As Streifel explained, “When you can offer all your services in your community, it helps everybody including the property owners and the housing market. Even local businesses, like we have on our main street, help our schools.”
Duke added, “I believe it’s important for small towns to keep their grocery stores for the health of main street and its elderly residents who would have difficulty traveling 40 or 50 miles to buy groceries. Liberty State Bank’s willingness to work with the Olsons, Powers Lake EDC, the building owner and grocery store supplier was a real team effort to help the community maintain their grocery store, and BND was happy to be a part of it.”
While the Olsons are learning the ropes of running a grocery store, they are strategically planning for the next phases of their business plan. Those stages include introducing more of Connie’s sweet treats and baked goods and Dustin’s barbecue meats. They have already been taking small steps toward these but are focusing on building connections and being financially responsible first.
“When it comes to finances, we have to take this slowly. One step at a time and get it to be a profitable commodity to where people want to come here,” Olson explained. “They realize that there is stuff to buy in the store. We do have some regulars that are very grateful. They thank us for stepping up because they really need a grocery store and they do appreciate that.”
