Aug. 11, 2021

Sioux Falls now has a place to purchase food and other items for a fraction of the price, with the benefit of reducing food waste.

Think protein bars that once were $1.78 for 30 cents, packs of Hint Water decreased from $18 to $6 and many more items that are half-price.

When Kristin Johnson moved from Illinois two years ago, she was surprised to see that Sioux Falls did not have a reduced-price grocery store, she said.

“I have been shopping at these types of stores for probably about a decade,” Johnson said.

“During the pandemic, I had more time to think about how to develop a store. I knew that I wanted to continue to keep food out of the landfills and help feed people.”

She opened Fair Market earlier this year at 2512 S. Carolyn Ave.

Because this concept is new to Sioux Falls, Johnson collaborated with the city’s Health Department to get the doors open.

“All of the food that we sell is shelf stable. We have a variety of items, from baby products to toiletries and day-old breads to your favorite baking items,” she said.

Acquiring the items

When stores have items that they need to get rid of, they sell them back to the warehouse, which is called reverse logistics. Johnson is then able to buy these items. 

Items can be sold back for a variety of reasons: the public not being interested in a certain product, a label changing, packaging that gets banged up, approaching expiration dates or relevance, like selling Christmas-themed Rice Krispies after the holiday.

“I recently got four pallets of things that have never been opened from the factory where they were created. The entire pallet was shrink-wrapped and never even reached other stores,” Johnson said.

Pricing

All of Fair Market’s items are about 50 percent off of what Walmart is selling them for, Johnson said.

“I use Walmart’s pricing because they have such a large database, but every now and then, Walmart’s not the cheapest,” she said. 

“I always tell people, if you know that it’s cheaper somewhere else, please let me know because I’m not in this to make millions of dollars. I am here to keep this food out of the landfill and to hopefully help make ends meet.”

Shelf life

Even though some of the foods on the shelves are expired, the education on expiration dates is slightly skewed, Johnson said.

“The USDA typically says that all shelf-stable items three to five years past their ‘expiration date’ are just fine. As long as the packaging is intact, there’s nothing really to worry about. There is even a chart online that breaks down the items that exceed their ‘sell by dates,’ ” she said.

Meeting the need

Things were tight for Johnson when she was growing up, she said.

“I learned from a young age that you can take your dollars and make them go further,” she said.

“I recently got approved for SNAPs (food stamps) and am currently working on getting a machine to run them. I think this will really help the community because if you are given $150 in SNAP dollars each week and the only place you can spend them is here or Hy-Vee, you are going to be able to make your dollar go a lot further here and end up leaving with twice as much food.”

Johnson said she believes there is “room for everyone at the table.”

“If you are a person who makes $300,000 a year and want to save 50 cents on a can of soup, be my guest,” Johnson said.

“You might not necessarily need to shop here, but why would you spend $4 on a package of pudding when you can get it for a buck?”

What’s next

Fair Market does not sell fresh produce, but Johnson hopes to be able to incorporate fruits, vegetables and other products in her store eventually, she said.

“I have had a lot of requests for cheese, yogurt and frozen pastries, and I have even had companies from Los Angeles calling me and asking to take some of their fresh produce, but those items are probably our sticking spot with the Health Department,” Johnson said.

Johnson also hopes to add a menu-planning service down the line.

“I would like to take on a person or two a week and plan menus for different amounts of people on different budgets,” she said.

“Let’s say you need to feed four people, and you only have $70 for the week. We would look at what is on sale at the store and create a menu around what we have available. This would relieve a lot of the stress around planning meals and also aid in reducing cost because you would know exactly what you need.”

Fair Market’s hours are 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.