Help keep Kenyon's grocery store
Kenyon has had a grocery store on this block since 1925. In July 2026 the owners told the city council it must sell or close, and that they would rather sell to someone in town. The store is open every day and the ad runs every Wednesday. Nothing else is organized yet; this list is where it starts.
Join the supporter list
Leave your email and we will send news on the store, the sale, and any community effort to keep it. Nothing else, and never sold.
109 Red Wing Avenue: built in 1989 for Fred's Fairway Foods, 13,170 square feet, remodeled in 2001 and again in 2025 with closed-door coolers. Photos: Google Street View and the store's Google profile.
Four ways to help this week
Buy the week's groceries here
A grocery store lives on volume. Sales fell about 10 percent after the dollar store opened. The ad has 117 items on sale this week, with the fresh meat and produce a dollar store does not carry.
See the adOrder holiday meatballs and pulsa now
The owner asked customers who plan to order for November and December to do it early, so every order is covered whatever happens with the sale. Churches, too.
Call 507-789-5101Tell the council it matters
The council meets the second Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 709 2nd Street. Citizen comment is the first item on the agenda; no sign-up needed. Next regular meeting: Tuesday, October 13. City office: 507-789-6415.
Meetings and minutesGive the store your regular business
Standing orders, house accounts for churches and employers, a prepaid store card, local goods on its shelves: the things a small store can do that a chain cannot. Tell the store which you would use.
Do business with the storeThe record
On July 14, 2026 the owners spoke during citizen comment at the city council and said what most of the town had heard by then. The minutes record it this way:
Pete Wagner from the Kenyon Market stated that the grocery store has started to take a downward turn and it has gotten difficult to stay in business in town. Part of this is due to new competition in town. Dan Wagner, Kenyon Market owner, added that as far as continuing the store, it is looking to close or sell to an intown resident. There are approximately twenty employees that have been notified of the situation. The Wagners asked if there was anything the council could do to help, like a coalition or a cooperative.Council minutes, July 14, 2026 · Kenyon Messenger, July 23 · The Kenyon Leader, July 29
In the owner's words
Over the last three years, sales have been on a steady decline. People work and shop out of town, online purchasing rises every year, and large corporations that sell food often see a small-town store as an inconvenience to their business plan. Although we work hard to remain competitive, wholesale prices for smaller stores are not always on a level playing field with bigger retailers, and the margins are razor-thin.
Over the last five years, I have invested heavily to stay ahead of these trends. We converted all lighting to LED's, and replaced the flooring to modernize and reduce costs. Most recently, we installed closed-door coolers, which was a fantastic way to improve food quality and help with monthly energy bills. We also added loyalty rewards and doubled the size of our ad to four pages.
My doors are staying open, and I am operating as I normally would while navigating this difficult time for myself and my amazing staff. The #1 goal moving forward is to keep an active grocery store in Kenyon.
Pete Wagner, posted to the Concerned Citizens of Kenyon Facebook group, July 23, 2026
The biggest kicker was probably the Dollar Generals popping up within ten miles in the last two years. Two stores in a town this size is a game changer.
Our advantage is our ability to do great fresh produce and meat, which is a hard thing to replicate for large corporations. However, the margins are so slim that it only takes a chip out of your sales to eliminate your profit.
Especially in the wintertime, I go here; I don't go down to Faribault at all. It'd be a pretty big blow.
The next grocery store
Without the store, fresh food is a drive. Kenyon Meats sells meat and Dollar General sells packaged food; the nearest full grocery stores are these.
| Store | Town | Miles | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hy-Vee | Faribault | 16 mi | 24 min |
| Nilssen's Hub Food Center | Zumbrota | 17 mi | 22 min |
| Family Fare | Cannon Falls | 20 mi | 28 min |
| Cub Foods | Northfield | 21 mi | 30 min |
| Hy-Vee | Owatonna | 33 mi | 45 min |
Road distance from 109 Red Wing Avenue by OpenStreetMap routing, rounded; drive times are without traffic. Wanamingo has had no grocery since Buckstop Grocery closed in January 2018.
Where it stands
The owner has said he would help a buyer with financing and operations, and that the equipment, the coolers installed in 2025 and the recipes go with the business. The September 8 council agenda listed a Kenyon Market update from the city administrator; those minutes are not out yet. The council suggested the EDA meet with the owners.
The pattern across Minnesota
Kenyon's store is not an outlier. University of Minnesota Extension surveyed the state's rural grocers in 2020 and reported the same pressures the Wagners described to the council. 88% of them were concerned about their store's long-term survival and 49% thought it could close within five years, on margins of about one percent. Where a town has kept its store after the owner left, the model has usually been community ownership: New London opened a member-owned co-op in 2024 after fifteen years without a grocery, and Manna Food Co-op in Detroit Lakes has run since 2017 with more than 1,200 member-owners. The Wagners raised a cooperative at the council on July 14; nothing has been organized yet, which is what the list on this page is for.
Council record: July 14 · September 8. Survey figures: University of Minnesota Extension, 2020; examples: Minnesota Reformer, June 2026. This page will be updated as the record changes.
For a buyer
A buyer would take on a store with the fixtures already in place and a staff that has run it for years. Programs a buyer or a community group can ask about: Start with Pete Wagner at the store, 507-789-5101.
Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Food Retail Improvement and Development Grants
Equipment and infrastructure grants of $5,000 to $75,000 with a 25 percent cash match, for grocers in underserved areas. The 2026 round closed March 10; the next is expected in early 2027. Whether this address qualifies as an eligible area is a question for the MDA.
University of Minnesota Extension rural grocery program
Free technical help on ownership transitions, cooperatives and store finances, run through the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships.
Kansas State Rural Grocery Initiative
The national toolkit on cooperative and community ownership of a small-town store, including a transition guide.
City of Kenyon business incentives
The local programs the EDA administers, on this site.
Sources
- Kenyon City Council minutes, July 14, 2026 (in the August 6 packet)
- Kenyon City Council agenda, September 8, 2026: administrator update on Kenyon Market
- Kenyon Messenger, July 23, 2026: Grocery Store Shares Challenges with Council
- The Kenyon Leader, July 29, 2026: Kenyon Market seeks buyer who can 'reinvent' store, by Tim Messenger IV
- Pete Wagner's update to the Concerned Citizens of Kenyon Facebook group, July 23, 2026
- The Kenyon Leader, September 17, 2025: Dollar General opens in Kenyon, by Chloe Kucera
- Wanamingo Messenger, March 12, 2026: Dollar General to open in Wanamingo this week
- The Kenyon Leader, January 2018: Buckstop Grocery in Wanamingo closes after 12 years
Compiled September 17, 2026. Corrections: team@kenyonminnesota.com.