Join us for Shelf Life: Resources and strategies for rural grocery, a monthly webinar series addressing critical issues and opportunities facing Minnesota’s rural grocers.
Sessions will be held via Zoom from April 2025 through October 2025.
Rural grocery stores
Rural grocery stores: the heart of rural communities
Small-town grocery stores are the heart of rural communities, yet many struggle with competition from larger chain stores, a shrinking customer base, and changing consumer demands. These local stores are a keystone of rural Minnesota communities. When they go out of business, they are difficult to reopen and their closure impacts the well-being of the surrounding community.
Shelf Life: Rural grocery webinar series
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Minnesota rural grocery survey report
RSDP’s focus areas—food systems, clean energy, and resilient communities—make it uniquely suited to working with rural grocery stores.
To understand the needs of these vital businesses, RDSP conducted statewide surveys in 2015 and 2019-2020 and held numerous face-to-face conversations to understand the needs and challenges of rural grocery owners. The USDA defines “rural” as towns with fewer than 5,000 people, but the surveys focused on cities with populations of 2500 or less.
The most recent survey found:
- 96% of stores agreed or somewhat agreed that, as a small business, they have a responsibility to the wider community.
- 49% of rural grocery stores are concerned their store will go out of business in the next 5 years.
- 41% of rural grocers would like more access to local foods.
Resources for rural grocery owners
Recognizing the vital role rural grocery stores play in Minnesota, RSDP is delivering resources and support across the state, including:
- Providing one-on-one technical support to help grocery owners navigate funding sources like the Good Food Access Program, which offers grants to replace and upgrade rural grocery equipment and infrastructure.
- Outreach to 243 shops in 2024 to offer support, resources and invitations to events like product merchandising workshops.
- Working with 17 owners in 2024 to audit energy usage with help from RSDP’s Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs).
- Offering produce handling workshops for grocery store managers and staff.
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The Farm to Grocery Toolkit is a resource for farmers and grocers to help facilitate the sale of farm-grown products to grocery stores, particularly those in rural Minnesota. Farm-to-grocery provides opportunities for increased sales and market access. Diversified supply chains, such as farm-to-grocery, are important for a resilient food system.
The toolkit covers:
- The legality and methods of selling and buying local foods.
- Legal product checklist and various templates (i.e., labeling local foods, farm feature, invoicing, margin calculator).
- Tips on building a successful business relationship.
- Guidance on processing local foods for sale.
The following case studies, conducted for RSDP, provide information on the successes and challenges of the farm-to-grocery model from the perspectives of farmers, grocers and food hubs.
The quality and appeal of fresh produce can affect a customer’s impression of the entire grocery store. Use these resources for tips on how to best store and market produce in a way that appeals to customers and prevents food waste.
Minnesota’s rural grocery stores are critical sources of emergency food access. Originally developed during COVID-19, the 14-day meal kit helps grocers deploy pre-made emergency food supply boxes during community crises. For approximately $150, the kits provide healthy, shelf-stable, easy-to-prepare, and calorie-sufficient meals for vulnerable populations.
This set of case studies is part of efforts by the Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (RSDP) at University of Minnesota Extension to support rural food retailers as they struggle to survive in a challenging economic climate.
New Ulm Community Market and Cooperative initiated this specific study as the new store options for growth. The objective of this study was to use interviews with small and cooperative food retailers to obtain a better understanding of the resources, strategies, tools, and techniques that support small food retailers in staying viable and sustainable.
The final report provides details for food retailers to assess each set of practices for potential replicability.
RSDP engaged stakeholders from across the food supply chain to develop a model that helps small and medium-sized crop producers access wholesale markets.
The Farm to Rural Grocery to Wholesale (F2G2W) model leverages the existing network of rural grocery stores and their wholesale suppliers to backhaul locally grown produce on emptied wholesale trucks for redistribution through wholesale markets.
The long-term goal is for small and medium-sized farms to increase their viability, competitiveness, and sustainability through access to profitable wholesale markets via the existing network of rural grocery stores and wholesale suppliers.
Farm-to-rural-grocery-to-wholesale project information
Farm-to-rural-grocery-to-wholesale backhaul project regulatory considerations
Halal and kosher meat markets offer untapped opportunities for Minnesota farmers to diversify and expand their markets and for new and emerging farmers to become involved in food production. To do so, the landscape of these markets needs to be described. This report provides an overview, criteria, barriers, and consumer concerns and preferences.
- The Good Food Access Program offers grants to help grocery stores and small food retailers improve their physical facilities and purchase equipment to increase sales of such foods.
- The Kansas State Rural Grocery Initiative provides resources to help others learn about the rural grocery industry.
- The Rural Energy for America Program offers rural grocers and small businesses to save energy dollars with efficient equipment or add renewable energy systems.
Work with our team
To learn more contact Zachary Paige at [email protected] or 218-236-2001.
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