Rural North Dakota town loses its only supermarket – KVRR Local News

ENDERLIN N.D. (KVRR) – Enderlin’s only grocery store is suddenly closing its doors next week.

Folks in Enderlin find out their only grocery store is closing, sending shockwaves across the rural North Dakota town of under 900, when the owner put up a sign early this week.

“Pretty much found out like the public did there was a sign posted on the door that I’m closing,” said Enderlin Mayor Deon Maasjo.

The store owner has yet to identify why its closing.

With the next grocery store almost 20 miles away, the issue greatly affects Enderlin’s demographic.

Enderlin Resident Russell Myhre said, “Part of it to is that there’s a lot of elderly people in Enderlin. Part of it is that not all of the elderly can drive cars It’s going to be easily 20 – 40 miles to the nearest grocery stores after this.”

Myhre, a local who was born and raised in the town, mentioned how this isn’t only an issue for his community but all rural towns across the nation.

Myhre said, “But it is still going to make it more difficult to live in an area like this. We’ve lost our pharmacy, now we’re losing our grocery store a lot of other businesses have closed or moved on. So obviously it is difficult without having a population upon which to base a business model but nevertheless we are going to have to figure out some alternatives.”

However, the Enderlin mayor says they will come together as a community and is working on a plan to replace the supermarket.

Maasjo also said, “I think with the CDC group and some other private citizens of Enderlin I think we’ll come up with a plan of what to do to put in a store. It might be smaller. We just don’t know what that all looks like just yet.”