July 15, 2024

After a delay of two years, work has begun on a grocery store that will replace a longtime staple of an east-side neighborhood.

Owner Efrain Patino said he hopes the new store will be open in September. He has not yet decided whether it will include a deli for customers to take prepared meals home, but a full supply of groceries will be on the shelves.

El Mexicano No. 7 will be in the former Andy’s Affiliated Foods building on Cleveland Avenue north of 18th Street. Former owner Bob Jelsma closed the 72-year-old family-owned store in spring 2022 after announcing he was retiring.

Jelsma’s father opened Andy’s in 1950. When Jelsma announced his retirement, it was the second-oldest family-owned grocery store in Sioux Falls. Only Franklin Food Market on Cliff Avenue is older. Jelsma had owned Andy’s for about 35 years.

Jelsma sold the land north of his store, and a Dollar Store opened there in early spring 2022.

The store’s sale to Patino was announced in June 2022. Patino gave no reason for the delay in opening it; he originally had planned to reopen it that year.

Patino, who lives in Worthington, Minnesota, said he would name the Hispanic grocery store El Mexicano No. 7.

Patino moved to the United States from Mexico more than 25 years ago. His brother started the first two Hispanic grocery stores in the Patino family. That’s why when Patino opened his first store in Worthington he named it El Mexicano No. 3.

Patino, 43, started by assisting his brother at the grocery stores in Storm Lake and Denison, Iowa, before branching out. He opened the market in Worthington in 2011 and has stores in Omaha and South Sioux City.

Patino opened a restaurant in Worthington in 2014 and operated it for four years before selling it. He resumed ownership during the pandemic.

Patino said earlier that he decided to expand to Sioux Falls because many residents from this community are traveling to Worthington to shop at El Mexicano No. 3.

“I got a lot of customers going from Sioux Falls to Worthington,” he said. “A lot of customers during the weekend. And a lot of customers from Huron and the little towns around Sioux Falls. So many were driving two hours or more to find a grocery store. It will be a lot more flexible for them.”

As a small business, it is difficult to compete against super-size grocers such as Walmart, Hy-Vee and Fareway, Patino said. That’s why he focuses on groceries from Mexico. He still will offer food products that appeal to all shoppers, he said.

A building permit issued for the renovation indicated that the commercial coolers would be demolished, and some nonstructural walls would be removed. The store’s front windows have been replaced with plywood, and the store’s floor has been torn up.