Congratulations to Hansen Foods on the celebration of their 60th anniversary last month!
According to the Hansen Foods history posted at their customer service desk, as the only remaining full-service grocery store in Hart, “Hansens” got its start in 1966 when Don and Bev Hansen moved to Hart from Gaylord, where he was the manager of the A&P grocery store. Not wanting to take a transfer to manage a store in the Detroit area, Don came back to his hometown of Hart with the express purpose of buying a grocery store that was for sale by then-owner Lyle Kemp (located in the current Knights of Columbus building on Washington Street).
Selling everything they had, the Hansens paid the required down payment on the 2,400-square-foot grocery and moved their young family (Dave, Brenda, Diane and Goeff) back to Hart, where they opened the Hart Food Center shortly after. Literally using all of their money on the down payment, they didn’t even have enough money to put cash in the drawer for opening day.
They started with just four employees - Doug Drum, Gladys Hindman, Germaine Owens and Arlen McCloskey. At 13, Dave started in the meat department; Brenda, only 11, became a cashier and at 9 years old, Diane helped in the produce department. Goeff, who was only 6 at the time, was “off the hook."
“Sometimes you have to take a step into the water, and a rock will rise to meet your foot,” Dave’s store biography reads. “Don and Bev had the courage to risk it all to better themselves. With hard work and a sense of humor, they built their business and soon outgrew it.”
In 1972, the Hansens moved their store to the former Kroger building (now Community Mental Health). And as the family grew, so did the business. So in 1985 they chose to build their own store at their present location on Polk Road. “Everyone thought we were crazy. They would say, ‘Who’s going to go that far for groceries? Nobody can walk that far," Dave’s biography continues.
As history has proven, plenty of people have gone “that far for groceries,” and now with the rail trail running right behind it, plenty of people can access the store by foot or bicycle too. In the 1990s, both Goeff and Dave carried on the family business, owning their own grocery stores in Bear Lake and Suttons Bay, respectively. Then in 2009, Dave and his wife Leslie returned home to Hart and purchased the store from his parents, Don and Bev. Every two weeks now, there is something special going on at the store, including Ribfest, Baconfest, their Seafood Sale Extravaganza and much more.
Both gone now, Don and Bev’s legacy lives on, not only in the Hansen family, but in the entire community. Their grocery store business has spanned multiple generations, from employees and suppliers to customers and community organizations. Many have benefited from their generosity and community-mindedness, including local charities, schools and families who received support during difficult times.
Dave served hot dogs and a Coke for a minimum donation of 25 cents at their 60th anniversary celebration on Saturday, April 25, with all of the donations going to the Crystal Valley Care Fund (CVCF). He said they raised $800 that day and presented the CVCF with a $1,000 donation.
"We could not have done it without all of our good customers sticking with us all the years," Dave told the Echo this week. "Without our customers, there wouldn’t be a Hansen Foods, and I would like to thank all of them for allowing us to be here for 60 years."
