Photo by Mike Lamb Bruce Schelhaas has operated the Tracy Food Pride grocery store since 1988.

Once in awhile, Bruce Schelhaas will take a day off from running the Food Pride market in Tracy. But sitting still is difficult for the longtime grocery store operator.

“Ever so often I’ll take a day off and I will be sitting in the chair and I go, “this isn’t what I want to do,” Schelhaas said while taking a break in the store’s dining area to talk about the store and what it does to help the community.

“It’s just a lot of hard work because you have to be here to run a small-town store,” he said.

Schelhaas knows something about running small-town stores. The Edgerton native’s resume in the grocery business goes back to 1970 when he attended meat cutting school in Mankato. After working in Mankato for several years, he joined one of his brothers in a meat locker business in Ruthton.

He eventually moved on to become meat department manager in Brookings, South Dakota, and then worked the Twin Cities area running meat departments.

“I got a real education because of the diversity of the area. That was good, but we (he and his wife Dawn) were living in the cities and we are country people at heart,” Schelhaas said. “We wanted a chance to get back into this area. So I got a job as a meat manager at the Red Owl that was in the mall (Market Street Mall in Marshall).”

Eventually, Schelhaas moved on to the Super Valu and the County Fair Store in Marshall. While working in the County Fair Store, he bought the grocery stores in Ruthton and Balaton. Meanwhile, his wife worked at the Hy-Vee store in Marshall.

Eventually, opportunities in Tracy arrived.

“The guy at the Super Valu was really struggling and it was about to close,” Schelhaas said. “But the people in town wanted to keep the downtown store so they raised a bunch of money, got loans together and (I) just run the store.

“It didn’t seem too bad because they had all the loans set. However, once I got in, I had to sign on the dotted line, so I was on the hook for the loans. That was OK, but not the way I thought it would.”

Meanwhile, the Food Pride market location was struggling, according to Schelhaas. Along with the backing of an investor, Schelhaas eventually took over the Food Pride market and closed the downtown market.”

That happened in 1988, and “we have been here ever since,” he said. “You move from one thing to the next trying to better yourself. Of course a lot of things you do you are forced by circumstances. So the circumstances ended up pretty well overall because we have been here for a long time.”

While the Tracy store continues to thrive, Schelhaas says it’s been challenging with stiff competition in Marshall in Hy-Vee, Menards, Walmart and the Dollar stores in Tracy.

“You have to have it together pretty good because you have all these different departments. And then you have to watch the profits and the losses. Your labor doesn’t get out of control. Supplies don’t get out of control. . It’s just A to Z when you run a business. Hopefully the business grows. You learn a lot over the years. You know what doesn’t work. You are restricted a lot because of price,” he said.

What works for Schelhaas.

“We are an old-fashioned store. We carry out groceries out to the car. There aren’t too many stores who carry out groceries to the car,” he said. “Kind of separates us because, especially when you get families and they come in to shop and they can’t bag their own. We get a lot of customers because of that.”

Schelhaas employs more than 30 people that include high school students working after school and on weekends.

“We try to run a clean store. Prices are higher, but we try to be fair. We run a really good meat department. That helps a lot. We got real fresh produce. We get four produce deliveries per week,” he said.

Food Pride also offers a deli and bakery.

While operating a grocery store that services the customers, Schelhaas also contributes to the community.

“We donate to a lot of different things,” he said.

He listed hospice houses, sports activities, FFA and churches.

One of the churches offers a Thanksgiving dinner to the community every year.

“We donate all the turkeys. We donate about eight 20-pound turkeys,” he said.

Another church puts on a ham dinner, and Food Pride donates all the hams.

“Service organizations always need help. We try to give them a fair deal on things,” Schelhaas said.

“It’s a people business,” he said. “You are always seeing people.”