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Glen Gust’s grocery career began when he was a child.
“I started delivering bread with the bread man when I was 7, and I delivered milk with the milk man when I was 12,” Gust recalled. “I made $4 a week — $1 per day — in the summers.”
As a high school student in Canby he worked for the local grocery store, and after he graduated in 1966, he worked at Sullivan’s SuperValu in St. Cloud where he studied business administration at St. Cloud State University.
During the summers of those first two college years he worked at Sullivan’s Diamond Lake SuperValu on 59th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.
In 1969 Gust was drafted to Vietnam. He returned home in April 1971 and went back to work at Sullivan’s, this time in Burnsville.
“It was the first carpeted supermarket in the Twin Cities,” he said, recalling also that it was the first to offer drive-up grocery pickup.
“It was a family business and after three years, I asked if I could buy into the business,” Gust said.
When that wasn’t an option, he set out to find a grocery store of his own.
It turns out the Carl’s Jack and Jill grocery store in Luverne was for sale, and on March 27, 1976, he and a partner signed a purchase agreement on the property.
“I had to have a partner because I didn’t have enough investment money of my own to put down on it,” Gust said. “I borrowed money from my friends, neighbors and relatives to come up with my own share.”
The grocery store was in the building now occupied by Ace Hardware. It was built new in 1975 by Virgil Christensen.
Within a year, Gust bought out his partner (Jim Twait, a friend from the Twin Cities) and he was on his way to living his dream.
“I just love the grocery business,” Gust said last week. “It was exciting working with people … it was fast-moving and there was always something happening. It was fun.”
And business was good.
“Back in those days it was really fun because there weren’t so many regulations,” Gust said. “You could run your business as an honest business person and everyone trusted you.”
At the time, Luverne had three other grocery stores — Kenny’s SuperValu (where Luverne Kawasaki is now), Les’s Foodland (later Jubilee Foods) and HyVee (where the current South Highway 75 Minnwest is now located).
In 1992 Gust added 4,000 square feet to his store, and in 1998 he added another 2,500 square feet.
“My parking lot was a mess, but the customers were just fabulous; it didn’t hurt my business a bit,” he recalled about the lot, which was supposed to have been torn up for a week, but it became three weeks. “We were carrying out groceries as far away as the old hospital (current Minnesota West/City Hall building).”
In 2003 Tony Bosch built the new Jubilee Foods store on the former Schoon Motors property in the middle of town. In 2005 Gust bought that store and moved Glen's Food Center to that location.
It wasn't just the moves and expansions that kept Glen's workers on their toes. There were changes in technology — like scanning.
“With scanning, our accuracy improved from about 70 percent to more than 98 percent,” Gust said. “It saved the customer a lot of money because we were able to be more efficient and accurate, even when labor costs were going up.”
He also remembers when he decided to be open on Sundays. “Peg and I and Tim and Tonya were the only ones working in the store,” he said. “The kids were there because they were too little to be home alone."
Hard work and solid business decisions didn't go unnoticed by Gust’s peers. In 1999 he was named Minnesota Grocer of the Year. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get that award,” Gust said, smiling.
It meant a great deal to him to be recognized by his peers in the industry. In 2012, he was installed as chairman of the board of the Minnesota Grocers Association.
Gust said he wishes he had kept record of all the employees — students through senior citizens — who worked for Glen’s through the years.
“So many of these kids have gone on to be doctors, lawyers and very successful businessmen and women all over the country,” he said.
Donna Remme worked with Gust when he first opened 40 years ago. She was working at Carl's Jack and Jill at the time Gust and Twait bought the store.
"They both had leather jackets on,” she said about Gust and Twait. “And you knew they were checking out the place."
At the time, Remme said she was glad someone was taking interest in the store.
“Business wasn't very good,” she said. “There were four grocery stores in town …”
She said Gust had his work cut out for him when he took over the store. “He did everything in his power to get that store on its feet again,” Remme said. “He offered a lot of good deals to get the business going.”
She added that she admired the fact that he built the business on his own. “He's not one of these guys whose dad set them up in business,” Remme said. “He's on his own two feet.”
Remme wasn't at Glen's for its whole 40 years, but she’s enjoyed her time with the business.
“Glen isn't that hard to work for,” said Remme, current grocery manager. “As long as you put his customers first, you'll do just fine with him.”
She said it also felt good to work for a boss who gives back to the community.
“He's a very giving person,” Remme said. “I don't think he's ever said no to anyone who's asked for donations. … He's helped so many organizations and causes and he's been involved in nearly every part of this town.”
On average, Glen's Food Center has donated between $35,000 and $90,000 per year over the past 40 years totaling millions to date.
“It's been a real blessing that we have been fortunate enough to give back to our community,” Gust said.
It’s part of what has built customer loyalty through the years.
“I'm just real pleased with their store and their service,” said Luverne's Tillie Clark, who has been shopping at Glen's Food Center since Gust first came to town. “I can't say enough good about them.”
She said she knows plenty of people who think they're getting a better deal buying groceries in Sioux Falls. “But they're spending gas to get there, paying tax on food … I'm doing just fine at Glen's,” Clark said.
She added that she appreciates the friendly service at the Luverne store. “They treat me very well,” Clark said. “They know me by name, and if I ever need help finding something, I can ask anybody there, and they'll help me.”
Gust said customer service has been at the core of his business model from Day 1.
“We’ve stressed customer service and a clean, neat, friendly store,” he said. “Things that are natural for me to do … We were fair and competitive in our pricing, and we did what we could for our customers — and that wasn’t just me, it was all of us at the store.”
He said he owes a great deal of his success to quality employees through the years.
“It’s been the success of Glens — the people who work here.”
In the Glen's Food Center weekly advertisement, Gust thanks his customers for their support and his employees for their service. He refers to the saying, “Time flies when you're having fun.”
More than anything, Gust says this sums up the past 40 years. “It’s been so dang much fun, even though it’s not an easy business,” Gust said.
“It’s low profit, hard work and long hours. But for me, it’s just been fun.”
He said it’s just like the saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Gust said, “I love going to work.”