Dave Louvar, owner of The Grocery Store has seen many changes in buying habits since he has owned the store in Big Sandy.
Whether those changes are good or bad depends on your point of view according to Louvar.
"You used to need a great meat department and that has changed drastically. Now you need only a small meat department but with choice cuts of meat in it," Louvar said.
Louvar continued, "Roast beef was on the table three days a week. Now days a lot of people don't even know how to cook roasts. Those people are getting into the fast food sections of my grocery store."
Louvar is right. In Havre as late as the 1960's a grocery store had to have a large meat department, some fresh produce in season and was mostly canned goods. That all changed out here anyway when after WW2 Frank Buttrey started bringing in frozen meat and other items. The problem was that no one had freezer space for those items so Buttrey built a locker plant directly across from Holland and Bonine Funeral Home in Havre and it looked like freezer items were going to be a staple in most grocery stores.
Still, though meat departments were a large item in the grocery store. Take the Marra Grocery Store on Third Street in Havre. Ray Barsotti's meat department took up a lot of space in the rear of that store and many people would get meat from no one else but Barsotti because they liked the way he cut his meat.
Louvar said that has not changed. People from Billings come to "The Grocery Store" in Big Sandy and order prime rib from Louvar for the holidays. Louvar asks them if there is no prime rib in Billings and they say, there is but we like the way you cut it. Louvar said he looks for two things with his prime rib and other cuts of meat. First it must be very fresh and second it must be just what the customer ordered. If the customer orders an 8 pound prime rib, that is what he gets.
Louvar went on to say that when he was raised in Chicago, his mother visited a butcher shop once a week and brought home what they needed and it lasted all the week long.
"A huge difference that I have noticed in the changing of grocery stores is that young people come into my store maybe two or three times a day. They look at The Grocery Store as a pantry," added Louvar. "In addition I have at least three times the space for frozen food than I used to. Frozen food is where it is. Taking something frozen home and microwaving it is how people eat food these days," said Louvar.
Louvar continued that a sack of potatoes will last a week where frozen potatoes will maybe last a couple of meals but so many people do not know how to make hash browns or mashed potatoes from scratch. So they buy frozen or instant and those potatoes simply do not taste as good as the whole potatoes do.
Without even thinking, Louvar said that the top frozen food in his frozen department are frozen pizzas. Many a meal in Big Sandy is made from all different kinds of frozen pizza.
"Another thing that makes me wonder if that I can have fresh corn in but still people will go and buy frozen corn which is more expensive. It is like they don't know what to do with fresh corn so they avoid it," continued Louvar.
Louvar talked about making a stew or soup out of those bags of potatoes when it is cold outside. He said that becomes comfort food and many people do not have a clue what comfort food even is.
"We are missing that these days," added Louvar. "And when you think of breakfast, it is a part of a box of cold cereal or go to the school for something hot. That is sad too."
Sad and different. But like everything else, times do change and with less and less time to cook, the easy to cook items are very popular now.
Virginia Lucke used to have a pot of chili on the stove once a week all winter long and she would cook a couple of roasts and maybe roast a chicken every Sunday.
That kind of cooking has changed a lot through the years and even though very good food can be purchased in the frozen section, (like Swedish meatballs or stuffed peppers), for the most part the food of our parents was better prepared, much less expensive and better for us.
But that is the way of the world. Change happens. Get used to it! Heed what Dave Louvar did. Tighten up his meat department and expend his frozen foods.
